I wasnt concerned about the specific incident involved in the exchange  It was the statement that the uwtemplates arent severity warnings they are counts  In the end we may be saying the same thing  I also usually start out with a level or level  But if I see a pattern of vandalism over time either from existing warnings on the talk page or by taking a look at the user contributions or if the substance of the edits is particularly egregious Ill jump to a level or maybe even a level at which point I go to AIV  But a user might get a few level or  warnings before getting a level warning  I guess thats why I took issue with SMcCandlish conceptualizing the numbers in the templates as counts of warnings in the last week  I dont see it as a linear first warning second warning third warning progression