Template:BlockingPolicy

A user who displays misconduct may receive an account block in response to their behaviour, preventing them from performing editing-related actions. The principle of upholding common sense will significantly reduce any likelihood of being subject to a block. Everyone - including staff - is subject to and must abide by the information stated in this section.

Procedure

Blocking is a countermeasure to prevent the expected continuation of misconduct or to defuse an escalating situation of negativity or conflict between members. The function of blocking is to disincentivise undesirable behaviour, not to disenfranchise participation or to banish users. Resorting to blocking is regarded as unfavourable and is preferred to be avoided, or be minimal and temporary in nature, afterwards giving a user the chance to demonstrate a change and improvement to their behaviour.

• Warnings may be issued to inform an offending user of their misconduct where it is assumed that they were at least partly unaware of wrongdoing.
• A block's initial duration is determined at staff's discretion, and if subsequent blocks are applied relating to particular misconduct, these may increase up to a maximum duration of 1 month per block.
• Users are entitled to an explanation regarding the cause and conditions of blocks, and one can make a request on their talk page for staff to provide this (where permission to post on their own talk page while blocked is afforded, unless the privilege is abused, leading to it being revoked).
• An appeal may be pursued with the staff member who applied a block to have its details clarified and its duration potentially reduced, until that staff member deems that the matter has been adequately settled, where then no other staff member is obliged to intervene.
• Blocks may be reduced or lifted at any time without notification.

Unacceptable conduct

Conducting any of the following actions (including through automated processes) - by means of publishing, posting, linking to or uploading content - may result in being blocked:

• Transmitting inappropriate material: such that is recognisably obscene, discriminatory, violent, pornographic or illegal.
• Negatively contributing unproductively or destructively: such that is clearly unrelated, redundant, nonsensical or visually obstructive, or is transparent vandalism, or editing of others' user pages without permission.
• Persistent irrelevant promotion: such as of sites, services, products, individuals, groups, ideologies or behaviours which are not connected with the wiki's subject or are recognisably objectionable.
• Displaying intentionally antisocial behaviour: such as degrading abuse, sustained harassment, threatening retribution, slanderous gossiping, manipulative activity, or subtly belittling posture - towards other users, on-site or off-site where recognised.
• Expressing self-directed profoundly negative sentiment: such as self-loathing or self-degrading or suicidal sentiments; moreover, wilfully provoking a heated public response. Wikis are not adequately facilitated nor suited for discussing such associated issues.
• Undermining staff authority: deliberately disobeying or constantly disregarding staff instructions, making defamatory remarks against staff, or displaying overtly ignorant behaviour whose instances are repeated and lacking of general regard.

Prohibited account usage

Using an account(s) for the following is forbidden, and in addition to recurring blocks, may result in reports being made to wiki.gg staff:

• Inappropriate username: that which is identifiable as an action of unacceptable conduct as stated in the above section. An account whose username is deemed as such (including being gibberish) must be changed when given such instruction by staff.
• Sockpuppetry: using an alternate account where the operator (who has a recognised 'main' account) fails to demonstrate the capacity for its responsible use - any action deemed as such by staff, which may include evading blocks, misleading other users, or stalling in the forthright disclosure of the operator's identity. An operator's identity may be verified - and hence permission be given to operate the alternate account - with double disclosure being provided, requiring that the alternate account is used to declare that "This is an alternate account of a named operator" (the main account username), and that the main account is used to declare that they operate a named alternate account. Declarations must be made on each account's own user page (not using one account to edit another account's user page), clearly readable and unobscured.
• Impersonation: using the name of other users or distinguishable real-life people, groups or organisations. An account whose username is deemed an act of impersonation must be changed when given such instruction by staff.
• Unsolicited personal information handling: including solicitation (e.g., asking someone for their age), underhanded acquisition or dissemination; actions which compromise users' privacy.

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Description

This template is the source text for:

• the blocking policy on Meta:Policy
• the user blocking policy on MediaWiki:Edittools

Syntax

Type {{BlockingPolicy}} to include the above text on one among multiple pages.