Editing Encyclopedia:Username policy (section)

=== Usernames with non-Latin characters ===
{{anchor|Non-Latin}}{{anchor|NL}}
{{policy shortcut|WP:NONLATIN|WP:LATINPLEASE}}
{{see also|Wikipedia:Unified login|Wikipedia:Signatures#Non-Latin}}

<section begin=UNPOL />Users with usernames in [[List of writing systems|non-Latin script writing systems]] are welcome to edit Wikipedia. There is no requirement that usernames must be in [[English language|English]] or that [[Latin script]] characters must be used. However, such usernames may appear illegible to other contributors to the English Wikipedia, and not every user's [[Computer keyboard|keyboard]] or [[input device]] may have immediate access to non-Latin [[Character (computing)|characters]]. In addition, sometimes certain characters may not display correctly.  As a courtesy to other contributors, and to avoid possible confusion or mis-identification, users with such usernames are encouraged to provide a Latin-character [[transliteration]] username on their [[Wikipedia:User pages|userpage]], and also as (at least part of) their [[Wikipedia:Signatures#Non-Latin usernames|signature]].  For an example, using the signature ''Παράδειγμα/Paradigma'' for [[User:Παράδειγμα]].<section end=UNPOL />

For technical reasons, usernames containing any [[Wikipedia:Naming conventions (technical restrictions)#Restrictions on usernames|forbidden characters]] (<code># < > [ ] | { } /</code>, as well as <code> @ : =</code>), are not possible.<ref>The "/" character is used for subpages of userpages. Just under 40,000 legacy usernames contain one or more of these last three characters; see {{quarry|87858}}.</ref> Usernames also cannot contain sequences of three or more consecutive tildes, as these are used to generate signatures, and cannot contain underscores, as the software automatically converts underscores to spaces and strips away any leading and trailing spaces.