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How do I: Is it possible to merge users?

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    • CommentAuthorDaniel
    • CommentTimeFeb 25th 2010
     
    I accidentally created two users in Mathoverflow (one registred and one unregistred). Is it possible to merge them?
  2.  

    A moderator can. One will probably read this, come along and do it for you.

  3.  
    What Harald said... if you give them your userids (mathoverflow.net/users/xxxx)
  4.  
    If a moderator doesn't happen to see this quickly, you could flag one of your own posts for moderator attention and include your merge request in the message.
  5.  

    Merged! (In case you're worried I'm merging willy-nilly, the two users had the identical email addresses, usernames, and IPs, and the IP is also shared by the Daniel who started this thread.)

    • CommentAuthorDaniel
    • CommentTimeFeb 25th 2010
     
    Thank you!
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  8.  

    @pavlov: done. Let me know if you have any other problems.

    • CommentAuthorMariano
    • CommentTimeMar 5th 2010
     

    There are two instances of Victor Ostrik around :P

  10.  

    Perhaps this thread should be sticky?

    • CommentAuthorKevin Lin
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2010
     

    I've noticed two Eric Zaslows. Probably they are the same person.

  12.  

    I've asked Eric if he'd like his accounts merged. It seems Victor's have already been merged.

  13.  

    And I've now merged Eric's.

  14.  

    A couple of days ago, I grepped the database to see how many duplicate users we have (answer: about 150 people have more than one account). I emailed a handful of the "worst offenders" to remind them that it's possible to register; there's not much point in merging unregistered users since more of them will just keep being created. If any of the other moderators are really bored, I can send you the list of duplicates and the form letter I use to explain how/why to register.

  15.  
    3468 and 3577 should probably be merged. This doesn't appear to be one of the pointless ones, because 3577 is registered.
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    Poll Question: if somebody has an orphaned cookie-based account and a registered account under the same name and email address, is it safe to merge the accounts without confirming via email?

    It's quite easy for me to produce a list of all users in this situation, and I'm occasionally in the mood for tidying up, so I could just merge a few now and then. Any time I've emailed people about it (usually because it came up on meta that they have a duplicate account), they've always responded positively. Emailing people is boring and tedious; I'd rather have duplicate accounts floating around than do it. But merging users is an irreversible procedure, so I'd like to be really sure that nobody is going to feel violated if I merge their accounts without asking them. Can you imagine a situation where somebody could reasonably want to keep their cookie-based account separate from their registered account? (Remember I'm assuming they're using the same name and email, ruling out the possibility that they are using the cookie-based account to post anonymously sometimes.)

  17.  

    I vote for pre-approving merging if real names and email addresses match.

  18.  
    Couldn't someone maliciously create fake accounts with the same real name and email address as another user, then post a lot of spam before / after the merge?
  19.  

    @Qiaochu: Yes, but it would be a fair amount of work/luck and there's little motivation to do so, since any damage could be quickly undone. There are two malicious situations I can think of:

    1. I'm a bad guy who wants to make is look like a registered user is posting junk. So I make an unregistered user with the same name (and I guess the email address the other user used) and start posting junk. Then a moderator comes along and merges my junk user into somebody's registered user. Now it really looks like they were posting garbage. It's hard to imagine the motivation for this. People flagging posts as spam/offensive would reduce the damage. Not only that, if the account does get merged into the "target user", that user will own all the posts, so she can simply delete them.
    2. I'm a bad guy who wants to steal the account of a non-registered user. So I register a user with the same name (and guess the email address the other user used). Then a moderator comes along and merges their unregistered account into my registered account. Now I change the name and email to my own and I get all the credit for their posts. It's easier to imagine the motivation here, but again the damage can be easily handled. As soon as a moderator becomes aware of what happened (I imagine the "target user" or somebody would send an email), he can simply give control of the account to the rightful party by editing the OpenID in the user's profile.

    Basically, my poll question is whether the (I think remote) possibility of one of these attacks and the hassle of dealing with them outweighs the annoyance of people accidentally creating multiple accounts.

    Disclaimer: If I have stronger evidence that two users ought to be merged (e.g. a registered and unregistered account have the same name, email, and IP), then I have no reservations about merging them. If you object to that, please say so and I'll stop doing it.

  20.  
    @Anton's poll: yes, you should definitely merge them. I think that, barring strong indications to the contrary, people should be considered trustworthy and helped. This is not a nuclear power plant. I'm amazed you find the time as it is, but e-mailing people would require ten times as much time.
  21.  

    I agree totally with Ilya.

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