Midnight, Texas Wiki:Blocking

**Blocking** is the method by which Midnight, Texas Wiki:Administrators can prevent a registered user account or anonymous IP or IP range from editing the Midnight, Texas Wiki. Blocks are preventive rather than punitive measures used to prevent damage and disruption by dealing with vandalism and enforcing community and site-wide policies. Block duration may vary from either a definite or an indefinite time, depending on the severity of the disruption. Blocked users can continue to access the community, but cannot edit any page (and in some instances, including their user message walls). Blocking is one of the most powerful tools that are entrusted to administrators, who should be familiar with the circumstances before intervening and are required to be able to justify any block that they issue.

One should assume good faith, but remember that all site policies apply to everyone equally.

## Blocks

Blocking on Midnight, Texas is the exclusive purview of the Midnight, Texas administration. This is, however, except for Fandom Staff and related personnel for cross-wiki and/or site issues. Administrators may issue blocks to registered and anonymous user accounts by using Special:Block. This page allows administrators to select the account of the intended blocking target, the duration of the block, and the reason for the block. Once blocked, the account will not be able to edit until the block expires, if at all. Blocks may be removed, shortened, or lengthened by Special:Unblock. A list of all currently blocked accounts can be found here, while the Block log lists the complete blocking history of Midnight, Texas. Any individual account's blocking history can also be view by the "block log" link on their contributions page on any given community.

Any user may request a block by messaging an administrator on their message wall. Requests should be substantiated with clear evidence of *disruptive behavior*. However, administrators are not obligated to issue a block and are free to investigate the situation themselves. Users should, however, employ discretion in doing so as if it appears that one user is purposefully trying to get another user into trouble, they may find *themselves* being blocked.

Administrators are *advised* to give a warning to users before issuing a block; however, this is at their discretion. Warnings and/or reminders via edit summaries are okay and can be reinforced by direct messages, if necessary. More serious offenses *may* go without a warning and be substituted with a shorter block duration. It is also advisable to allow the blocked user to edit their message wall so they can respond to their block, but again, this is up to the blocking administrator's discretion. Blocks should be for short periods, depending on the severity of the offense, and successive blocks can incrementally increase in duration, but this is by no means required. Repeated offenses and numerous blocks can lead to indefinite account blocks.

## Appeals

Blocks are subject to review and appeals, though no administrator should undo another administrator's block without first proper discussion. Blocked users wishing to appeal a block may do so by posting on the blocking administrator's wall. If users are unable to edit the community at all (including message walls), leaving a message on the blocking administrator's message wall at Community Central is advised. If an appeal cannot be reached, please wait for the block to end or contribute to a different community, instead. Please note that harassing administrators by messaging them more than once, or leaving more than a single message, or attempting to contact or harass them other communities about the block, except for Community Central, can result in longer or indefinite blocks. Leaving messages on user walls, demanding the block to be removed, or giving or making up other excuses is of poor conduct and will likely not help to appeal the block. Apologies, more than saying "I'm sorry!", as well as admitting your mistakes and why you did it, *may* more aptly get your appeal granted, but this is not guaranteed. Basically, "treat people the way you want to be treated. Talk to people the way you want to be talked to. Respect is earned, not given."

Requests to appeal the block are also decided in light of prevention and deterrence. A user account *may* be unblocked earlier if the user agrees to desist and appears to have learned from the matter, or if the temporary block has already ended. Likewise, if the user who has previously returned to inappropriate conduct or policy violation after an appeal, they may find their appeal declined for deterrence reasons, to emphasize the importance of change and unacceptability of the conduct.

## Administrative Sanctions

The following section lists *some* of the most common reasons for which a block may be issued here on Midnight, Texas Wiki. This list is by no means comprehensive, and administrators are not bound by these specific cases as, generally, no two situations are ever going to be exactly alike. With that said, it is also unfair for any administrator to enable a block without just cause as each user should be respected.

1. **Vandalism and Spam** — Any edit made to deliberately lower the quality of Midnight, Texas. In the general sense, adding to or creating content to articles that otherwise has no place on Midnight, Texas that include, but not limited to obscenities, nonsense, crude humor, page erasing/blanking/partial removal (without reason), etc., creation of non-essential or "spam" articles, templates, categories, subpages, blogs, etc., the insertion of nonsense on non-related material into articles, and spamming external links and advertising, or necroposting, to name a few.
2. **Disruption** — Behavior that damages Midnight, Texas and its community, such as being uncivil or overly aggressive, trolling, flaming, vulgar or inappropriate language and profanity, harassment, sexual or racial slurs, etc. Malicious action against other users is met with a **Zero Tolerance** policy. This is included in targets of the community itself and what may occur on the community chat.
3. **"Fanon" / Off-topic / False Content** — Adding unofficial (false), fan-generated, speculated, or content that has no connection to Midnight, Texas Wiki. We do not house fan-fiction content on this community (this is inclusive of user pages and blogs). Canonicity is determined by what happens directly in the episodes or comic issues, and are contained on their respective pages. Sources, in some situations, **must** be used to prove verifiability.
4. **Personal Attacks** — Users personally attacking or defaming other users. This usually occurs through disagreements over article content, comments, or Discussions post - but can be in regards to *anything*, including, but not limited to user content posted on user profiles, discussion posts or any other area of the community. This extends to bashing the cast or crew or starting a conflict in relation to, which is generally unacceptable. Users do **not** have to be previously warned.
5. **Sockpuppetry and Ban Evasion** — An attempt to evade an existing block, whether temporary or permanent, local or global, to continue to edit the community through the practice of using multiple accounts. This is inclusive of creating new accounts to avoid detection, using another user's account (piggybacking) or persuading friends, acquaintances, etc., or other users to create accounts for the sole purpose of supporting one side of a dispute. It is demonstrative of poor user conduct and may result in an indefinite block on the offender's multiple, **or main**, accounts.
6. **Inappropriate User Account** — Creating an inappropriate account name (or buy at large, the profile content), whether, in regards to user (or real person) impersonation or insult, rudeness and obscenity are grounds for a no-warning infinite block. Accounts can be renamed by using the Special:UserRenameTool.
7. **Plagiarism and Copyright Content** — Users who continually add plagiarized content despite being warned, either through a formal message or edit reversion, will be blocked to prevent further violations. We strive to create **original** content! Links to download the episodes, books, etc., from torrent sites or other (illegal) streaming sources are illegal (or of questionable legality) in the United States.
8. **Edit Warring** — This is when two, or more, editors who disagree about the content of a page repeatedly override the other's contributions. This behavior is frowned upon and typically suggested to discuss the problem on their message walls to come to a resolution. Edit warring with administrators is forbidden. Administrators *generally* know what they're doing as viewed as the community's leader(s), and as such, that should be respected. Pages that are subjected to edit warring or counter-productive edits can be locked until a resolution can be reached. Temporary blocks can be enabled if warnings are not followed.
9. **Cross-Community Violation** — This does ***not*** automatically mean that users blocked on one community will be necessarily blocked here. However, administrators here at Midnight, Texas reserve the right to block users because of blatant and persistent disruptive behaviors, either past or present, elsewhere on Fandom. Examples include, but not limited to, cross-wiki vandalism in "rolling" attacks or spam, persistent behavior that violates the aforementioned policies, or fighting/drama/harassment with another user that comes to this community meaning to continue or start issues. Should administrators become aware of obvious existing issues from users new to the community, they *can* be warned that continued disruptive behavior is not permitted.
10. **Policy Violation** — Failing to adhere to Runaway Wiki policies, usually after, but not necessarily indicative of, receiving a notice or warning beforehand. This is inclusive of repetitive explanations within reverting edits with useful edit summaries. This also includes failing to heed warnings issued by administrators or moderators, violating multiple policies or repetitively the same policy. This include violations of Fandom's policies and/or the Terms of Use.