ESB:Proposals/Blocking policy/3

Open Proposal The following is an ongoing proposal. Please feel free to voice your opinion, but be sure to follow the rules. How proposals work Concerns stage Someone brings up a topic for a proposal. The community discusses that topic. Voting stage The proposal is brought to a vote, taking into account any changes discussed by the community. The community votes. You can use any of the following prior to your comments to show your opinion. {{Support}} • {{Neutral}} • {{Oppose}} • {{Change}} • {{Comment}} • {{Reply}} • {{Question}} Neutral votes do not count in determining the outcome percentage.

Introduction

We established a blocking policy for the first time in April 2014. Of course, with any first drafts of a policy, we adopt it, implement it, and see how it works. There has been some confusion as to how the policy is worded, as well as specifics as to how we enforce the policy. So, this is an update to the blocking policy so that everyone is on the same page no matter what, and that everything is more black and white. This proposal is meant to eliminate all disputes with the blocking policy.

Pros:

• 1. Clarifies questionable information/confusing policies.
• 2. Resolves questions raised in the past few months regarding policy.

Proposal

The following is the proposed revised blocking policy.

Blocking policy

• A. General

• 1. Administrators are privileged with the power to block other users and are expected to have good judgment when it comes to using this power.
• 2. Administrators must follow the established blocking policy. Any exceptions require a community discussion.
• 3. Any administrator who fails to follow the blocking procedures after one (1) warning from a bureaucrat will be suspended for seven (7) days.
• 4. After the administrator's 7-day suspension, their administrative powers shall be returned. If the administrator continues to violate the blocking procedures after one (1) warning from a bureaucrat, they will be given a 14-day suspension, pending discussion on the administrator's user rights.

• B. Procedures

• 1. Administrators that find a user violating any of the policies must revert any changes and must politely notify the user of their wrongdoing by giving one (1) warning on their message wall. The warning is only legitimate if it is on the user's message wall, so they can be notified of such warning.
• 2. If a user breaks two (2) different rules, that counts as one (1) offense for each rule. A user must break the same rule two (2) times before being blocked for the first time. (second level offense, see below)
• 3. If a warned user continues to edit within twenty-four (24) hours without acknowledging the warning, the administrator should try to contact that user again.
• 4. If the warned user continues to edit for twenty-four (24) hours after the administrator has tried to contact them again, the user's offense moves up a level, in which they would be blocked.
• 5. The warning and block schedule will follow the following format:

• a. 1st level offense: 1st warning
• b. 2nd level offense: 1st block (24 hours)
• c. 3rd level offense: 2nd warning
• d. 4th level offense: 2nd block (3 days)
• e. 5th level offense: 3rd warning
• f. 6th level offense: 3rd block (7 days)
• g. 7th level offense: 4th warning
• h. 8th level offense: 4th block (14 days)
• i. 9th level offense: 5th warning
• j. 10th level offense: 5th block (1 month)
• k. 11th level offense: 6th warning
• l. 12th level offense: 6th block (3 months)
• m. 13th level offense: 7th warning
• n. 14th level offense: 7th block (6 months)
• o. 15th level offense: 8th warning
• p. 16th level offense: 8th block (1 year)
• q. 17th level offense: 9th warning
• r. 18th level offense: 9th block (2 years)
• s. 19th level offense: 10th warning
• t. 20th level offense: 10th block (3 years)

• 6. It is acknowledged that users who learn from their mistakes be forgiven, and so every 30 days a user goes without another offense for a particular policy violation drops a level.
• 7. All policy violations must be listed here for everyone's reference: ESB:Policy violations.
• 8. The preceding clauses (1 through 7, above) are the blocking policy and must be followed, except for the clauses outlined in section D, "Exceptions," below.

• C. Exceptions

• 1. Emergency Block Clause Any user who makes any contributions that are very serious to the point in which they harm the wiki or threaten a user, they may be infinitely blocked immediately until the situation is resolved through an official investigation and/or discussion.
• 2. Immediate Block Clause Any user who spams and/or vandalizes as their first edit will automatically be blocked for a maximum of fourteen (14) days. If they continue to spam and/or vandalize after their block in which none of their contributions are positive they shall be given an infinite block.
• 3. This clause outlines items that are not block-worthy, and such are deemed "unfair."

• a. Anyone who misspells a word or misuses grammar shall not be blocked.
• b. Anyone who begins a page without proper formatting shall not be blocked.
• c. Anyone who makes an accidental edit shall not be blocked.

• D. During a block

• 1. Any user who is blocked has a right to their message wall for purposes of explaining their actions and/or making an appeal (see section E).
• 2. Any blocked user who violates a policy on their Message Wall receives one warning specified on their talk page for each offense. If they violate the same policy twice, the rights to their talk page are removed. These offenses apply to the schedule listed in B5, above.
• 3. No administrator shall alter a block unless it is to correct it so that it follows the schedule listed in B5, above.

• E. SpongeBobia Network

• 1. Each offense applies to each wiki within the network separately. If a user violates rules at ESB but not FSB, they do not get punished at FSB, unless a discussion deems it necessary.

• F. Appealing a block

• 1. Any user who is blocked or banned may appeal to have the block or ban removed if they deem it unfair.
• 2. The appeal will be in the form of a discussion that will follow the discussion policies and last seven (7) days.
• 3. In this case, it is required to allow the user to edit their talk page/message wall no matter what the issue is.
• 4. If the blocked user handles the block without verbally/personally attacking the blocking administrator or violating any other user conduct rules, they will be allowed to make an appeal on their talk page/message wall.
• 5. If the blocked user violates any user conduct rules, the will be blocked from using their talk page/message wall and the opportunity to appeal a block.
• 6. If the appeal fails, the block will not be reverted.
• 7. If a blocked user fails an appeal, they must wait out the rest of the block.
• 8. If a banned user fails an appeal, they must wait six (6) months before creating another appeal.

If passed, this policy will apply to all future blocks. This discussion will end on Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at 8 p.m., eastern time. — AMK152 (Wall • Contrib) 01:02, November 27, 2014 (UTC)

Support

• Support - clarifies confusing things, makes other things more specific. We need to end block disputes at once. — AMK152 (Wall • Contrib) 01:02, November 27, 2014 (UTC)

Oppose

• Oppose - I agree with only some parts, but there's a lot I dislike. Joey ^(talk)
• Strong Oppose - i feel that if this passes, misbehaving users/trolls would end up feeling like they could get away with everything much more, espically the parts saying "the warning is only legit on massage walls", and "policy violations must go here" things. --Tominator777 (talk) 01:09, November 27, 2014 (UTC)

• Warning someone where they can't see it is not fair. — AMK152 (Wall • Contrib) 01:11, November 27, 2014 (UTC)