User:Phoenix/Test
Blocks are used to deal with vandalism, disruptive behaviour, bots, and inappropriate usernames. Sysops and Patrollers have the ability to block user accounts, as well as their IPs and even ranges of IPs if absolutely necessary. Blocks can be temporary or indefinite (often known as infinite bans or "permabans"). Administrators must take care to follow the proper procedures when using their blocking abilities.
Procedure
If users fail to follow the rules and policies of the Super Mario Wiki, official warnings should be issued, instructing them to stop their inappropriate behaviour. Increasingly severe warnings are issued if users continue to act disruptive towards the other users or destructive towards the wiki's content, and eventually, blocks of increasingly lengthy durations are used in place of more warnings. Some offences are more serious than others and warrant severe warnings or even blocks right away, with no prior notice.
MarioWiki:Warning Policy outlines the proper procedure for administering warnings and includes lists of offences and how severe the punishment should be. This includes a number of offences that warrant automatic infinite bans, which will be discussed in detail in the following sections. If a user commits one of these offences, they should be blocked indefinitely, and as explained on the Warning Policy page, if a user received a {{Lastwarn}} and breaks another rule, they should also be blocked, but only temporarily. If a user makes useful contributions as well as the disruptive behaviour that earns them a block, their first block should only last two weeks. Once a user has been blocked and the blocks runs out, they can edit the wiki again, but if they start violating policies and/or breaking rules again, rather than receiving more warnings, they should simply be blocked again, this time for a longer duration. In general, three months should be the length of the second block. Upon returning from that block, if the user still persists with their inappropriate behaviour, they should receive an infinite ban.
However, this progression from two weeks through three months to a permaban is only a rule-of-thumb, and admins may choose to use longer or shorter blocks at any time. Block lengths may also be altered after they are initially given; for example, the admins might extend the second block from three months to indefinite if they discover additional offences committed by the user and decide that they have already used up all their chances to be a proper member of the Super Mario Wiki. Blocks may also be shortened or removed altogether if the admins decide that a certain punishment is too severe or if a misunderstanding occurred.
Automatic Permanent Blocks
As mentioned before, MarioWiki:Warning Policy has a list of "Level 4" offences which warrant automatic indefinite blocks, rather than warnings. These offences are discussed in detail in the following sections.
Vandalism
Template:Seealso If a user joins and promptly starts to vandalize the wiki, they should be blocked. Acts of major vandalism including uploading inappropriate images and replacing pages or sections of pages with inflammatory or profane remarks. Blanking pages is another common form of vandalism, and while it is possible that it could be a new user making a rookie mistake, it probably isn't and they should be blocked, especially if they blank a major page or more than one pages. One form of vandalism that must be guarded against is spamming, in which gibberish or advertising is inserted into articles en masse, and must be dealt with as quickly as possible to prevent excessive damage and tedious clean-up work.
However, as mentioned in the Warning Policy, not all acts of vandalism warrant instant bans. Capitalizing words inappropriately, removing chunks of information and adding inappropriate content (such as commentary or very bad writing) are just as likely to be mistakes as concerted efforts to damage the wiki, and should merely be given the Last Warning template at first. Similarly, if a user makes a mix of good edits and bad edits, rather than assuming they are a vandal, they should simply be warned that some of their edits are inappropriate and then monitored for continued bad behaviour, rather than skipping straight to the more severe punishments.
Trolling
If someone joins just to stir up trouble by making personal attacks against users or posting inflammatory comments on talk pages (or in articles themselves, which is also an act of vandalism), they should be blocked and their flaming should simply be removed.
Inappropriate Usernames
Inflammatory, profane, lewd, deliberately confusing or spammish, excessively lengthy, and other inappropriate usernames are not allowed. Admins can force a namechange by blocking the original, inappropriate account, and explaining in the summary and on the talk page that the user must create a new account. However, if the name is bad enough, the user may simply be banned as a troll/vandal, and not invited to rejoin at all. Bureaucrats will often rename such accounts to something generic, such as "Noname1" or "Null002", so that the spam, flame or vandalism is not readily available on record, especially if the account edited any pages before it was banned.
Usernames that are designed specifically to impersonate or copy legitimate users may be blocked, although Last warnings should typically be issued forst, giving the user a chance to change their name normally. Even this course of action should only be taken if the impersonation is definitely done maliciously. Someone might have simply chosen a name similar to that of another user without having any ill intent whatsoever, which is especially true of names based on generic or common themes relevant to the wiki. For example, a new user calling themself "WarioRules" is probably not trying to impersonate an older user known as "MarioRules", whereas if there is a user known as "WhiteOut" and a new account known as "White0ut" or "WhiteOut2" joins, this is suspicious. The first one could be attempting to pass themselves off as the original user, while the second name could be seen as a form of antagonism towards the user. If a user with a similar name proceeds to copy the original user's signature and/or userpage, or even sign their comments with the original's name, this is definitely a case of impersonation and should be confronted. Impersonators may also try to defame the original users by vandalizing or flaming other users, in which case they can be blocked immediately for those crimes in and of themselves.
Sockpuppeting
A user creating more than one account is known as sockpuppeting as is not allowed. Extra accounts should be blocked indefinitely and their talk pages should be deleted.
Users sometimes create sockpuppets to try and start afresh after receiving a warning or a block, in which case, the new sockpuppet account should be blocked and a Last Warning issued to the user. If a User creates a sockpuppet while they are blocked in an attempt to evade their ban and edit the wiki in the meantime, the duration of their block should be extended the first time they are caught doing this. Often, the block length will be doubled and added on to whatever time has already been served; so if a user has been blocked for two weeks and is caught after the first week, they will be blocked for four more weeks after that point, meaning they are banned for a total of five weeks. If the user attempts to evade the block a second time, the ban length should be increased to indefinite, and as always, any more sockpuppets they create should also be banned.
It is possible for users to create other accounts without sockpuppeting in the traditional sense. Users may forget their password and be forced to create a new account, especially if time has passed between their original account's last edit and their new account's creation. If a user had no spots on their record before their "sockpuppeting", and are only editing from their new account, rather than blocking that account, the Admins should block the old, inactive account and let the user know what has happened, confirming that a lost password was the situation and reminding them to not make a habit of making new accounts. Sometimes new users get confused about the account creating process and can end up making multiple accounts before editing at all; in these situations, Admins should wait to see which account begins to edit and block the rest, letting the user know what happened and making it clear that they have to use their chosen account from them on. However, excessive account creation can be a form of disruption, and so if a user seems to be making an inordinate amount of accounts, Admins should put a stop to it and block all the old accounts, warning the user that if they continue, they will not be left with any accounts being left unblocked.
Finally, siblings are often confused as being sockpuppets. To avoid this, users should acknowledge their siblings immediately upon creation, but admins can also try to avoid misunderstandings by looking at the editing patterns of the two accounts. If neither account has gotten in trouble and both are editing, it is likely different people, as there is no logical reason to divide one's edits between multiple accounts. Admins should still ask the users in question to confirm they are siblings, so that it is on record and will prevent other admins from becoming concerned and having to do their own investigations.
Bots
Bots are currently not allowed (except those created by the wiki's developers) and should be blocked indefinitely upon discovery. This includes accounts created by a bot, with the intention of flooding the wiki with advertising or mindless spam.
"Public" Accounts
Wiki convention is that accounts with a specific name, but created for general public use by multiple individuals, are not to be used under any circumstances. Such accounts are seen as pretending to have a reputation as an individual within the project, while masking anonymity. Public accounts are not considered necessary or appropriate, especially because anyone can quickly create a username without even an email address being required.
Examples include any account where the owner posts the password for public use. These accounts may be blocked on sight indefinitely, with the block message indicating that public accounts are not needed.
As an alternative, when confirming that the password has been made public, it is quite simple and often creates less fuss to just go into Special:Preferences and change the password. This makes the password no longer public, and can also be done by anyone, not just an administrator.
When blocking may not be used
The list above is widely considered to be an exhaustive list of the situations that warrant blocking. Blocking should not be used in any other circumstances, unless there is exceptional widespread community support.
Use of blocks to gain advantage in a content dispute, and self-blocking in an effort to enforce a "Wikiholiday" or departure are specifically prohibited. Likewise, admins should not block those with whom they are currently engaged in conflict.
Admins should not block themselves (to enforce a "vacation" on themselves, for instance) because the resultant "autoblock" may affect other users (see Effects of being blocked, below).
How to Block
Sysops and Patrollers may go to Special pages and select the "Block user" link. This takes them to Special:Block, which has further instructions. Special:Block is also quickly accessible via the [block] link that appears next to each user on recent changes, and at the top of a user's Contributions page.
The "reason" that the administrator fills in will be displayed to the blocked user when they attempt to edit, as well as appear in the block log and the block list.
Expiry times are entered in the GNU standard format, which is described in the tar manual. Alternatively, a block may be "infinite" or "indefinite", meaning that the block is permanent, and will remain operative until an administrator explicitly unblocks the account.
If an admin does not enter an expiry time when blocking, an error message will be displayed.
Range Blocks
Range blocks are sometimes used when a vandal or disruptive user has been IP blocked on several occasions but responds by using a different IP address. In most cases, range blocks will affect at least some legitimate users. Therefore, range blocks should only be used when the disruptive behavior is frequent and severe enough to make other methods ineffective. This is a matter of judgement, and the likely number of legitimate users that might be affected should always be taken into account prior to implementation.
When used, range blocks should be as brief as possible.
The range block feature is difficult to use correctly because it requires an understanding of binary arithmetic. It has certain limitations inherent in its implementation, requiring the starting and ending IP addresses to be an exact multiple of the distance between them, which must be a power of two. For details, see range blocks.
Unblocking
Special:Ipblocklist contains a list of all currently blocked users and IP addresses, and the Block log is a record of all blocks that have been made. Administrators will see a link to [unblock] next to each user. After clicking this, admins should type in the reason for unblocking the user and then click the Unblock this address button. Sysops are able to unblock themselves by following this procedure.
Administrators may unblock users if:
- They were blocked in violation of this policy (i.e. blocked for too minor an offence).
- They were blocked due to a misunderstanding (i.e. sibling confusion).
- The block has lasted too long.
Other situations may arise in which it would be prudent to unblock a user: Admins must use their common sense and good judgement when dealing with all blocking and unblocking cases to ensure that the accused are treated fairly and that no rash decisions are made that could endanger the wiki or cause undo hardship to innocent users.
Effects of being blocked
Blocked users can still see all wiki pages, but the "edit" link brings up a "User is blocked" page which explains the reason behind the block and gives information on how to request unblocking. This page includes the "reason" message supplied by the administrator that originally imposed the block. Links and template includes both work as normal in the "reason" section.
The duration of the block depends on the expiry time that was entered at the time of the block, which may be "indefinite" or "infinite" (i.e., until explicitly unblocked).
When a blocked user attempts to edit, the IP from which they are editing is "autoblocked", so that they may not make the same edit anonymously or under a different username. There is an internal autoblock expiry time variable, which is set to 24 hours, meaning that when a username is blocked indefinitely, their IP will be automatically unblocked 24 hours after they last accessed a page.
Note that blocking does not in any way restrict any feature other than normal article editing: blocked users can still read articles, as well as adjust their watchlists and user preferences. Administrators and bureaucrats can continue to use all of their respective features: add and remove blocks, roll back vandalism, make someone a sysop, etc.
Accidental Blocks
Occasionally, users with floating IPs will find that they have been blocked accidentally, because their present IP was previously used by a banned user. These blocks will disappear if IP change can be forced. If that is not possible, the block should be reported to the first readily available sysop via email - see the list of Sysops for some likely candidates.
Users who act so as to impersonate a previously banned user, to impersonate a known vandal, or to pretend to be engaging in vandalism, are also likely to be accidentally blocked. To avoid this problem, it is in a user's best interest to not act in this way in the first place. "Don't do that then". It is good practice to edit so as to demonstrate your trustworthiness, not to put up a facade of untrustworthiness.
See Also
- Special:Ipblocklist (a list of currently blocked users)
- Block log
- MarioWiki:Warning Policy
