I'm assuming the problem with wish authors being renamed (as there was with W91, W105, W371) hasn't been fixed, given that proposer is still the username. I wonder why user IDs aren't being stored instead of usernames, for wishes and votes alike.

Still happening (note the removal of the votes at 2024-09-15T09:41:33.091Z, 2025-06-26T13:23:19.559Z, and 2025-07-02T17:57:40.216Z).

@mikez-WMF Can you reconsider the priority for this? Triaging this as "Low" effectively signals that you don't think votes matter.

Some related discussion is at T406194: InvalidArgumentException: Wishes must have a proposer!. User IDs are illegible for wikitext editors, but the Votes page specifically isn't really meant for manual editing even for those who prefer wikitext. Surely, at minimum, we should not be wiping out votes! So I think the easiest thing to do is start silently ignoring invalid usernames. I'll start with that. Switching to using IDs would indeed be better (for /Votes anyway), but it would require a migration script.

What would be perfect is a parser function to fetch the user ID. My naive impression is the existence of {{GENDER:}} implies such a parser function should be performant (gender and user IDs live in the same table), so maybe that could be added to Core. But save that for a different task.

Change #1247861 had a related patch set uploaded (by MusikAnimal; author: MusikAnimal):

[mediawiki/extensions/CommunityRequests@master] Voting: store user IDs instead of usernames and prep for a migration

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1247861

Thanks for working on this! I've filed the related issue mentioned above as T418975.

Change #1247861 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/CommunityRequests@master] Voting: store user IDs instead of usernames and prep for a migration

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/1247861

@MusikAnimal I just have a quick question regarding AC1, just to make sure before I mark it as Resolved.

Test Result - Meta Beta

Status: ✅ PASS / ❓ Need More Info
OS: macOS Tahoe 26.3
Browser: Chrome 145
Device: MBA
Emulated Device: NA

Test Artifact(s):
https://meta.wikimedia.beta.wmcloud.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist/FA7
https://meta.wikimedia.beta.wmcloud.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist/FA1
https://meta.wikimedia.beta.wmcloud.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist/W19
https://meta.wikimedia.beta.wmcloud.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist/F46

Test Steps

Test Case 1: Ensure a vote persists after the voting user’s account is renamed

1. Log in to Wikipedia with User A.
2. Navigate to a wish or focus area that allows voting.
3. Cast a vote on the wish or focus area.
4. Request or simulate an account rename for User A to User A (Renamed).
5. After the rename is completed, navigate back to the same wish or focus area page.
6. Observe the vote count and the voting record.
7. ❓ AC1: The vote cast before the rename remains present and counted after the account rename.

Were just saying the vote itself would stay but the rename will obviously update and not keep the old username, right?

Test Case 2: Ensure a renamed user can still vote again using another account without removing the original vote

1. Log in to Wikipedia with User A.
2. Navigate to a wish or focus area page and cast a vote.
3. Rename the account from User A to User A (Renamed).
4. Log out and log in with User B.
5. Navigate to the same wish or focus area page.
6. Cast a vote using User B.
7. Refresh the page and check the vote list and vote count.
8. ✅ AC2: Both votes remain recorded and the vote from the renamed account is not removed.

Wishes

In T412648#11704065, @GMikesell-WMF wrote:

…

Test Case 1: Ensure a vote persists after the voting user’s account is renamed

1. Log in to Wikipedia with User A.
2. Navigate to a wish or focus area that allows voting.
3. Cast a vote on the wish or focus area.
4. Request or simulate an account rename for User A to User A (Renamed).
5. After the rename is completed, navigate back to the same wish or focus area page.
6. Observe the vote count and the voting record.
7. ❓ AC1: The vote cast before the rename remains present and counted after the account rename.

Were just saying the vote itself would stay but the rename will obviously update and not keep the old username, right?

Correct. You can see when editing the /Votes page manually, we now have userid parameters instead of username.

Got it, thanks! I will mark this task as Resolved. Thanks for all your work!

Rename Fa	User ID

Are the votes that have been removed before the patch for this went live going to be restored?

In T412648#11759026, @Nardog wrote:

Are the votes that have been removed before the patch for this went live going to be restored?

I used https://quarry.wmcloud.org/query/103849 to identify potentially lost votes, and have either restored them or updated them to use userid. That came out to just seven edits.

@MusikAnimal Thanks!

Shouldn't all existing username be replaced with userid, or wouldn't votes being lost continue to occur when a user who has voted for a wish gets renamed and no one votes for it in the meantime?

(Also when I looked at Community Wishlist/W469/Votes, the rendered timestamps were shifted by 5 hours from UTC, even though I use the default timezone. It fixed itself when I purged the cache. It looks like when someone edits /Votes without using the extension, their local time gets cached for everyone, which is potentially—unlikely to be frequent but still—a privacy issue.)