Forum:Vandalism and Banning Policy

For the next new policy page, I would like to address vandalism and the consequences of committing it and other offenses. I never thought it would be necessary on this wiki, but I learned how naive I had been when we had the flood vandalism ordeal a few months ago. After that incident, I drafted a Vandalism and Blocking Policy page. Here's my draft. Skim through it if you care to, but keep in mind this was done quickly, and I intend to make changes and additions.

This page explains Highschool of the Dead Wiki's policies on blocking, or "banning," users from editing the wiki. These policies are mostly specific to this wiki. For a general Wikia guide to blocking, see Help:Blocking.

Vandalism
Vandalism on Highschool of the Dead Wiki includes, but is not limited to, the following: Edits that fall into one or more of these categories can lead to a warning and/or a block.
 * Adding malicious material to an article. Malicious material can be false information, gibberish, profanity, or anything else meant to deliberately devalue a page.
 * Removing material from articles without a reason. This usually involves a large portion or the entire contents of a page.
 * Moving or renaming an article to a title unrelated to the subject.
 * Posting spam links anywhere on the wiki.
 * Reverting another user's edits when the edits do not include vandalism or bad/false information.

Some edits fall into the categories above but were not performed with malicious intent. In this case, good faith will be assumed, and the user will be contacted by an administrator to ensure they know the guidelines and do not inadvertently commit any more vandalism. In most other cases, either a warning or a block will be issued.

Unregistered Users
Unregistered users who commit vandalism will not be issued a warning in most cases. If the vandalism is minor and does not contain material that could be considered obscene or offensive, it will be reverted and the user will be left alone the first time. If the vandalism is more serious or occurs more than once, the user will be blocked for a length of time appropriate for the level of vandalism (see below).

Warnings
The first time a registered user commits vandalism, that user will be issued a warning by an administrator in most cases (in more extreme cases, there will be no warning before a block is issued). The user is expected to heed the warning immediately. If the user commits vandalism a second time, they might be blocked depending on how serious their first offense was. If the user's first instance of vandalism is minor and their second does not exceed the level of the first, a second warning will be issued.

Blocks
A user will be blocked if they commit an instance of vandalism after being issued a warning for moderate to severe vandalism, or if they commit vandalism after being issued a second warning in minor cases. A user will be blocked without a warning if they commit vandalism on a severe level. The duration of the block will correspond to the severity of the vandalism (see below). The duration of the block as well as a reason for the block will be stated in a message from the blocking administrator on the user's talk page.

Levels of Vandalism
The exact duration a user is blocked for is at the discretion of the blocking administrator, but it will be based on the level of vandalism committed. The block durations are the same for all users, but users who have been on the wiki for a while may receive less lenience as they are expected to know the rules.

The following is a list of the levels of vandalism and the suggested block duration for committing them.
 * Minor vandalism - This is the lowest level of vandalism and is often committed inadvertently or without serious malicious intent. Most of the edits in this level involve adding false information or gibberish to articles on a very small scale. The first two instances receive warnings and the third receives a block of one week. Any
 * Moderate vandalism - This level includes a wider range of vandalism that is more obviously malicious but not too harmful or offensive. Edits in this level include removing/replacing large portions of articles, renaming pages, adding large amounts of false information, and most other forms of vandalism that do not contain offensive material. The first instance will receive a warning except in the case of unregistered users. The second instance will receive a block time of up to one month.
 * Severe vandalism - This level mostly includes the same type of vandalism as the previous levels, only severe vandalism involves material that is offensive. The vandalism in this level often contains material of a profane, obscene, or sexually graphic nature. Non-offensive vandalism in this level includes the removal of the entire contents of a page, multiple vandalism edits on one or more pages, and any other large-scale vandalism. This also contains most instances of spamming. No warning will be given before the user is blocked. Block time will be no less than one month and up to one year. In most cases, the time will be three months.

Flood Vandalism
Flood vandalism is the most extreme form of vandalism. It involves committing many vandalism edits on many pages in a short amount of time, making the activity page unmanageable and making it very difficult to revert the vandalism. Any user who commits this level of vandalism will be issued a permanent block immediately. This means they will be blocked for the maximum time, and the block will be renewed indefinitely. The user will never be welcome on Highschool of the Dead Wiki again. The user will also be reported to Wikia with a suggestion for a global block to prevent the user from affecting any other wikis.

The main change I would like to make is to increase the block durations, or at least make a more detailed list of different types of vandalism and be clearer about the durations for specific offenses. I also think I was too lenient with the warnings. They should probably only be given for the most minor offenses that could be unintentional. Hammiams, I would like your feedback as an admin as well as feedback from any other users who may be reading this.Turambar  02:47, April 16, 2012 (UTC)

When you made me admin you told me the limits where for Minor (up to 3 months), for Moderate (3-6 months), and for Severe (6 months to a year or permanently) as for warning I argree with you if it seems harmless and unintentional then a warning would be given but I have noticed sometimes a page will glitch and will show nothing until someone edits it again which can be a major mix up. Hammiams 03:19, April 16, 2012 (UTC)

I guess when I made you admin I had already changed my mind on the duration. I made this draft a while ago, and there has been more vandalism since then that has changed my mind. I'll definitely use the durations I told to you, though we can be more specific. This way we can be fair and consistent in blocking. I have also noticed that glitch. You can look at the more detailed recent activity feed by clicking the link at the top of the default page, and it shows a numeric value of how much information was added or removed. This should show whether a user blanked the page or it was just a glitch, but we'll just have to wait until it happens again to be sure and not ban anyone unless we are absolutely sure. I've also noticed sometimes users revert vandalism like blanking a page soon after, which I assume means they did it by accident. We should take into account how recently the vandalism was commited to give users time to revert it if there is a chance it was an accident.Turambar  03:46, April 16, 2012 (UTC)

I thought of half of that right after I posted my comment, but I was too lazy to edit it, as for time between edits for proof of vandalism is I think we should give the user a time of 4 hours max to fix it before we declare it was vandalism, in my eyes thats more than enough time to fix edits. And into more details abotu warning I think they should only be given if we delcare its a minor to moderate vandalism, anything above that you get bans but not full time length of the ban (Like for a 1-6 months), after that first temp. ban is when we start handing out the full time bans or permanent bans, only exceptions to this is if you do something like what happened to the news page a few weeks ago. Hammiams 22:37, April 16, 2012 (UTC)

I think 4 hours is fair. My account is connected to my email, so if there is truly an understanding and the user cares enough, they can contact me. Obviously, vandalism will go unnoticed for longer than 4 hours if neither of us is on within that time, but that's not a problem in most cases. Anyway, all you said sounds good. I'll take it all into account when I create the page, and we can continue discussing changes on the talk page.Turambar  23:51, April 16, 2012 (UTC)