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We recently closed a question on U&L that was migrated from SF. The OP had no account on U&L and, presumably because they didn't have time to log on before the question was closed, by the time they created one, the question was no longer owned by them.

So, the timeline was that SF user Syntax Error posted their question on SF. SF migrated it to U&L where Syntax Error had no account. It was closed on the target site where it is shown as owned by the non-existent user134378. The OP created an account (user134376) which is not associated with the Syntax Error account and, as a result they could not edit their question, so they posted an answer which was flagged etc.

This should not happen. Automatic account creation on the migration's target site was already in 2011. As I understand it, this should have been fixed along with the 100 rep bug. So, why is it still happening? Is it because the OP didn't use the same credentials? In any case, this is very bad UX and creates more work for the mods on the target site and is just a pain all around.

Migration of a question should be seamless for the OP. They should always keep ownership of their questions irrespective of which site they end up on.

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  • the user Syntax Error only had 1 rep on SF, and would've needed at least 200 to get the association bonus of 100 rep on U&L
    – m0sa Mod
    Commented Sep 16, 2015 at 15:32
  • @m0sa I don't really understand how the "100 rep bug" is related, I only mention it because it was mentioned in one of the linked bug reports. All I really know is that the user had no way to edit their question and that should never happen.
    – terdon
    Commented Sep 16, 2015 at 15:38

1 Answer 1

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What happened is that the user never registered an account on the Unix & Linux site. If they had, the question would have been attached to their account correctly and they would have been able to edit it.

Instead, it appears they arrived at the new site (not logged into an account), went "I'm not able to edit" and posted an answer as a guest. The user134376 account is an unregistered account.

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  • Sounds reasonable. OK., any way we could improve that? I mean, we can't really expect new users to understand the intricacies of the login system. Can't this be automated in such a way as to be transparent to the user? I mean, directly create an account on the target site and associate the migrated question with it?
    – terdon
    Commented Sep 16, 2015 at 16:11
  • I just had this happen again and with a registered user. I migrated this question to Super User and the OP was registered on Unix & Linux. The OP has no account on the target site, so won't be notified of comments etc until they create one. Will this at least happen automatically when they click on their question?
    – terdon
    Commented Oct 19, 2015 at 12:45

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