User:JamesWilson/My Ideas About Blocking

Blocking.... a nnecessary part of operating any wiki. Sad that is true, but there will always be malicious people trying to mess up the hard work other people put into a site. Now, I have read the ideas of other editors regarding this panel and will put my two cents in.

Ideas

1. A way to appeal: If an unfair block is issued, we need to have a way for the blocked user to appeal their block. I see email is currently disabled on this wiki. I'm not certain why, but I would assume a frequent abuse of the feature. We could reallow email. Alternatively, we could set up an appeals page. If a user were to abuse this, they could be banned from this page.
2. Undoing others' blocks: While users with blocking privileges (like myself) should never undo a Sysop block, there may be an occasional case where an unfair block was issued by an editor and another Sysop should be able to undo it. But this would only ring true if it were an obviously unfair block.
3. Offenses for blocks: Here are my ideal lengths of time for certain frequent offenses:

• Obvious vandalism, obvious parody, etc: 1-5 year block, depending on severity
• Spamming: Infinite block
• More subtle parody: same as above, based on a Sysop's discretion
• General silliness: Warning, then a block for a week
• Badmouthing another user, trolling, etc: If it is a new account doing the badmouthing, 1 year should suffice. If an established user does so, 3 days to a week for the first offense
• Edit warring-Same as the one above, though a warning may suffice the first time
• Inappropriate username: I may believe diffferently from Conservapedia Administration on this one. I personally believe that editors should be allowed to sign up under inoffensive pseudonyms, especially if they don't want to give out their real name. However, Conservapedia wishes users sign up under a permutation of their real name. I think if a user signs up under a pseudonym deemed unsuitable (but not malicious), the user should be invited to ask for a username change or the soft-block may work. If the username is malicious (i.e. mocking another editor, pure gibberish, swear words, etc.) the account should be indefinitely blocked.

4. Consistency: The offenses and lengths and whatnot should ideally be consistent.