Half-Life Wiki:Blocking guidelines

Blocking, also known as banning, is an administrative action that prevents an IP account or registered user from editing on the wiki. The duration of blocks may vary, depending on the severity of the offense committed. These guidelines should be used as the general standards for determining block durations, but administrators should use their own discretion on a case-by-case basis.

Also remember that, regardless of the individual in question, blocks should apply to everyone equally.

It must be noted that blocks are not to be discussed by the community. The administrative team will decide on whether or not a block is necessary.

Guidelines

 * 1) Vandalism - Vandalism is the most common reason for blocks on the wiki, and is defined as any edits made out of bad faith. This includes adding inappropriate or nonsensical words to articles, blanking pages, creating spam pages, purposefully changing correct information, and uploading inappropriate, pornographic, or spam images. Users who commit vandalism should be warned first, and then blocked for at least three days if the nonconstructive edits continue. Repeat offenders may be blocked for two weeks, one month, and then one year, for the second, third, and fourth infractions, respectively. Vandalism is generally carried out by unregistered contributors. Due to the fickle nature of IP addresses, unregistered contributors should never be blocked for more than a year. Vandalism of other wikis in this wiki's name will also result in a block here, even if the user was not blocked on the wiki he/she vandalised.
 * 2) Personal attacks - Personal attacks of any kind are not permitted on the wiki, as stated in our User Treatment Policy. Inciting or participating in flame wars is also considered a violation of this rule. A stern warning should be given prior to a block. If the attacks continue, the user may be blocked for at least one week if the user committed multiple personal attacks. Users who are blocked on the basis of personal attacks for more than five times may be subject to becoming indefinitely blocked. Due to the varying severity that personal attacks can have, administrators should use their own discretion when selecting a block duration.
 * 3) Vulgarity - Although mature language is allowed on the wiki, offending people is not one of our goals. Users who are overly vulgar in discussions should be warned. After multiple warnings, a short block should be issued. Repeat as necessary. Extreme vulgarity such as racism, homophobia, or any other kind of hate speech should be dealt with much more severely.
 * 4) Copyright infringement - Users who upload leaked or copyrighted files to the wiki should be warned about doing so. Continuing to upload these types of files after being warned will result in at least a one month block.
 * 5) Inappropriate username - Usernames that impersonate or strongly resemble another user, contain profanity or obscene language, or falsely portray one as being a third-party representative or organization (i.e. User:ValvEStaff), may be blocked indefinitely with no warning.
 * 6) Sock puppetry - The creation and usage of multiple accounts for any reason will result in an indefinite block of the sockpuppet account without any warning. Depending on the severity of the situation, it may also incur a block upon the perpetrator's real account or increase the duration of any existing block that they may be trying to evade. If a user wishes to create a new account for the sake of changing their username or getting a fresh start, they must inform an administrator so that the account they are abandoning can be blocked. Should the user ever wish to return to that account, they may ask an administrator to block their new account and unblock the old one. Users are never permitted to have more than one unblocked account at a time.
 * 7) Spam - Spamming links to external sites or advertising of any kind is prohibited under most circumstances. Users are free to discuss or promote things in their own blog posts or other casual discussions, but they cannot come to the wiki for the sole purpose of advertising. Users or unregistered contributors who appear to be using the wiki purely for the sake of promoting unrelated things should be warned. Further offenses should result in fairly long blocks.

Vandals may be warned with the vandalism template. All other warnings may be personally written by an administrator. Please remember to place block template in a new section on the user's talk page with the length of the block described in the first parameter.