Forum:Is it possible to usurp an account?

I have an account on Wikimedia's wikis with lots of edits (mainly on the English and Swedish Wikipedias). I see that someone has registered the same account on Wikia at some point, but Special:Editcount tells me that the user has no edits on any wiki. Would it be possible to usurp this account? I have noticed that Wikia has imported a few of my Wikimedia edits to various, crediting them to this user instead, and it would be nice to be able to claim these edits. Besides, it would be less confusing if I could use the same user name on as many wikis as possible.

Secondly, is there a way to find out where this user has registered and whether it might be possible the user on a talk page or by using Special:EmailUser (which I suppose would have to be user on a wiki where the account is registered)? Keep in mind that the user has no edits anywhere, so searching for contributions using something like wouldn't work. --130.237.227.15 12:40, November 7, 2011 (UTC)


 * No, Wikia does not usurp accounts. Special:EmailUser should work on any wiki, assuming that the user is emailconfirmed.


 * I see. Special:EmailUser on this wiki tells me that "this user has not specified a valid e-mail address," so obtaining the user account is probably beyond hope. Too bad: having my edits assigned to someone else's account is inconvenient. Is there any way to find any wiki where the account is registered so that I may post a notice at the talk page? There's still a possibility that the user might log in once in a while in order to use a different skin or check things on a wishlist, although it seems unlikely. --130.237.227.15 13:01, November 7, 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm fairly sure hundreds of accounts are created every day that are never used - but if you were to request it through Special:Contact, it is possible staff would be able to retrieve the wiki the account was registered on.


 * It seems to me as if misattributing imported edits to the wrong account is a breach of the CC-BY-SA license, though. It should be possible to convince Wikia of the idea that re-attributing those edit to a new account of your choice (or even letting you usurp the account as you suggest) would be in their own interest. :) -- NablaOperator 14:28, November 7, 2011 (UTC)


 * You assume that Wikia actually cares about breaches of CC-BY-SA. See for example any image with, or the upload form in the RTE.

The fact that there is a Wikia user with your username is irrelevant, and there isn't much that you can do to fix it. Wikia is not Wikimedia - they are two very separate things. It is also not a violation of CC-BY-SA that another user has "your" username here, since this is Wikia and not Wikimedia. Additionally, all accounts on Wikia are global, meaning that you can leave that user a message on their talk page on any wiki and they will get the message if they still use the account. It is very unlikely that they are active, however, if they have no edits. It could be worth contacting Wikia staff, though, since they might be willing to rename the current account and allow you to create it. Sorry we can't be of more help, 15:23, November 7, 2011 (UTC)


 * Renamed accounts can't be created over, and Wikia believes that despite the fact that the user will likely never use the account, they are entitled to the name because they took it first - they won't rename it.