Scratchpad:Blocking policy

 See also: Help:Blocking, Help:Blocking FAQ, Scratchpad:Blocking policy, mw:Help:Blocking users, mw:Manual:Block and unblock, and Wikipedia:Administrators' guide/Blocking

This page documents an official policy on Scratchpad. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that everyone should follow. Except for minor edits, please make use of the discussion page to propose changes to this policy.

Administrators can block and unblock users. When a user is blocked, they cannot edit any pages except their own talk page.

Temporary blocks are used on disruptive IP addresses and users who have vandalised a few times.
Indefinite blocks are used for persistent disruption.

Temporary blocks

Temporary blocks are generally used (especially for IP-only editors) when:

• A user is vandalising;
• A user advertises for something;
• A user adds linkspam to external sites;
• A user is uncivil;
• A user continuously fails to assume good faith; and/or
• A user is generally not following one or more of Scratchpad’s policies (e.g., SP:CAST).

Indefinite blocks

An indefinite block is a block that does not have a definite (or fixed) duration. Indefinite blocks are usually applied when there is significant disruption or threats of disruption, or major breaches of policy and/or guidelines. In such cases an open-ended block may be appropriate to prevent further problems until the matter can be resolved by discussion. Like all remedies, this is not a punishment. It is designed as a “time out” to prevent further disruption, and the desired outcome is a commitment to observe Scratchpad’s policies and to stop problematic conduct in future.

Only in extreme cases would there be no Administrator who is willing to lift the block, which would effectively make the uncooperative editor banned by the community.

Indefinite blocks are used when:

• A user is disruptive
• A user is a vandal- or spam-only account
• A user violates multiple policies or continues to do so after a final warning
• Open proxies or zombie computers
• Compromised web-servers

Open or anonymous proxies

Main page: Scratchpad:Open proxies

Given that editing from open proxies and/or zombie computers is equally prohibited on both Wikia and Wikimedia Foundation wikis, Administrators at Scratchpad will, from time to time and in order to comply with Wikia’s policy, have to block IP-only editors editing from proxies/zombies. To that end, the procedure at Scratchpad:Open proxies is to be followed.

Setting block options

This section is currently under construction. As such, it is not yet ready for action. []

Several options are available to modify the effect of blocks, which should be used in certain circumstances.

• Automatically block the last IP address used by this user, and any subsequent IP addresses they try to edit from or Autoblock will prevent contributors from contributing on the IP address that the blocked user was using, and should typically be disabled when blocking unapproved or malfunctioning bots (so as not to block the bot's operator, or other bots using that IP), though it should be enabled when blocking malicious bots. (This feature is enabled by default.)
• Prevent account creation will prevent accounts from being created by the blocked user; if autoblock is enabled, it will also prevent accounts from being created on the IP address that the blocked user was using. It should typically be disabled when blocking accounts with inappropriate names (to allow the user to create an account with an appropriate name), though it should be enabled when blocking bad-faith names (for example, clear attacks on other users) or vandalism-only accounts.
• Prevent user from sending email will disable the user from accessing Special:Emailuser for the duration of the block. This option should not be used by default when blocking an account, but rather it should be used only in cases of abuse of the "email this user" feature (however, in instances when administrators feel that email abuse is extremely likely, they may use their discretion). When enabled, efforts should be taken to ensure that the user's talk page remains unprotected and that the user is aware of other avenues (such as the Unblock Ticket Request System) through which s/he can discuss the block. This is often used in cases of a user who is likely to do damage and disruption through e-mail.
• Prevent this user from editing their own talk page while blocked, if checked, will prevent blocked users from editing their own talk page, including requesting unblock. This option is not checked by default, and typically should not be checked; editing of the user's talk page should be disabled only in the case of continued abuse of the talk page. The protection policy has further details.
• Prevent logged-in users from editing from this IP address, see "hard block" below.

There are two common blocks that may be imposed on registered accounts:

1. A soft block (autoblock disabled, account creation allowed) will only block the account from editing. A block is not applied to the IP address the account last logged in from. Accounts that log in from the IP address are allowed to edit. This is generally used in situations such as blocking promotional usernames or other other username policy violations and allow them to register a new account.
2. A hard block (autoblock enabled, account creation disabled) will block the account from editing and block editing from the IP address the account last logged into. Any IP the account attempts to edit from while blocked is also automatically blocked. Accounts cannot be created from the IP nor the user while it is blocked, but existing accounts may log in from the IP and edit without restriction. This is typically used in cases of blocking vandalism or to prevent other disruption.

There are two common blocks that may be imposed on IP addresses:

1. A soft block is used in most cases of vandalism or disruption.
2. A hard block (Prevent logged-in users from editing from this IP address) disables all editing from the IP address, whether or not from logged in users (except accounts that are IP-block exempt). This is typically used when the level of vandalism or disruption via creation of "throwaway" accounts is such that all editing from the IP address is to be prevented except after individual checking of requests. Open proxies are hard-blocked on detection.

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Wikipedia:Blocking policy. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Scratchpad, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Licence.