Personal acquaintances (German: Persönliche Bekanntschaften) is a community project that was started in 2008 in the German-language Wikipedia, to enable the confirmation of the community of active Wikipedians in "real life" (from meetups, associations, etc). Users of any Wikimedia project (including the English-language Wikipedia) can sign up to this project with their user name, and other users can confirm that they have met them face-to-face. Every user can sign up and receive confirmation to their main account which is known to other users. This system uses the primary account for a user (i.e. not alternative accounts). The project aims to improve the working environment and reduce, or eliminate, doubts about the identity of other users.
This system of mutual confirmations is currently only working in de.wikipedia, but is accessible to all other users via the single user login system. Its main pages have been translated into many languages, including English. It is easy to use, without the need to have an external review of the identity, and takes data protection and anonymity on the Internet into account. For disadvantages, see the FAQ. A more demanding alternative to this system is the bail procedure.
