If a user fails to comply with the MSPA Wiki policies or its staff they may receive warnings. If these warnings fail to change the user’s behaviour they may be blocked from using the wiki (either temporarily or permanently). When and for how long a block is issued depends on the concrete circumstances.
Common cases[]
Minor spam, unintentional rule breaking[]
In these cases a warning should be issued first, using the good faith warning template. If they repeat their mistakes after the warning has been issued, they are usually blocked for xxx (1 week?). If their behaviour remains unchanged after that bad faith can be assumed. Important: If an Editor receives a good faith warning, they are given 1 day after a warning is issued, in case they don't see it directly. This rule does not apply if they engage in vandalism/bad faith edits during that time. Bad faith edits do not get this 1 day to notice their warnings, if they keep vandalising after a warning a block will follow asap.
Vandalism and clear bad faith edits[]
A warning is issued imediatly, using the bad faith template. If they keep up their bad behaviour they are usually blocked for xxx (1 to 3 months?). If they return after their block and still do not comply with the rules longer or permanent blocks may be issued.
Severe vandalism[]
This covers both high level vandalism and engaging in alot of vandalism. A warning does not have to be issued. Normal users can still place a warning to alert admins and the vandal, but the admin does not have to place a warning prior to the block. Usually a xxx (3 months?) block is issued. Resuming behaviour that is not in accordance with the rules after their block time is over will result in a permanent ban.
How do we define "high level" vandalism?
- racist, sexist and generally hateful edits. This includes harassing other editors.
- pornographic, violent and other adult content. This also applies to uploaded pictures. Please note that what counts as adult content is dictated by the comic itself, as such curses such as “fuck” or “shit”, do not fall in this category unless they are used to harass other users.
- renaming pages to something inappropriate. Since this is more work to undo even “harmless” renaming, e.g. renaming john’s page “zoosmell pooplord”, can be treated as high level vandalism.
How to issue warnings[]
Warnings are placed on a user’s talk page and can be issued by everyone, but only admins can issue a block. There are three different warnings, one for good-faith edits (i.e. genuine mistakes), one for bad-faith edits (i.e. edits with malicious intent), and one for issues related to user pages images. Warnings are added by adding the following codes.
- {{Warning1}} for good-faith warning.
- {{Warning2}} for bad-faith warning.
- {{Warning3}} in case of abuse of user image privileges.
Please consider the following when placing warnings:
- Always sign your warnings! Like every other post on a talk page, warnings need to be signed, after all people could be interested in who issued the warning for several reasons.
- Be generous! If there is a chance an edits is a good-faith edit, treat it as such. Do not use the bad-faith edit warning unless you are completely certain the edit was done with malicious intent.
- Be precise! Each warning template has a section where you can enter the reason for this warning. Try to be precise here, especially in case of good-faith edits since the user needs to learn what their mistake was and how it can be avoided. If you feel you need to explain a lot put only the reason into the template and add an explanation under the template.
- Do not use the block templates unless you are an admin, as they should be placed by whoever issued the block. If you notice that someone has forgotten to place a block template you may place it if a reasonable amount of time has passed already.
Blocking users[]
Only admins are able to block users. If you have admin powers, please consider the following before blocking someone:
- If you block someone, be sure to leave the appropriate block template on their page.
- Template:Block1 for temporary blocks
- Template:Block2 for permanent blocks
- IP addresses should not be banned permanently. Registered Accounts can be blocked permanently, but this should only be done if a temporary block has failed to solve the issue.