Blocking policy

**Blocking** is the method by which administrators may prevent users from editing the Maggie Wiki. Blocks are used to prevent damage or disruption, *not* to punish users.

## Warnings

Unless an account is clearly only for the purposes of disruption, communication and attempted rectification of behavior should occur before a block is considered.

When communication fails and the need for a block does arise, the following guidelines are to be applied.

## Request block

Any user may request a block by reaching out to an administrator for any serious breach of this community's policies. Users requesting blocks should supply credible evidence, ideally in the form of links. Screenshots are **not** accepted as evidence, as they can be easily doctored. Placing a block remains an administrator's impartial decision.

## Reasons for blocking

### Acceptable reasons

Accounts and IP addresses may be blocked for behavior that damages or disrupts the wiki, including:

* Recurring vandalism or spamming
* Recurring failure to observe the user's code of conduct, such as making personal attacks or not adhering to a basic standard of civility
* Deliberately misgendering (i.e. using the wrong pronouns) and otherwise disrespecting people's stated facts about their person and identity.
	+ This includes not acting upon the request of people to have their pronouns and gender be updated on and their deadname removed from wiki articles, regardless of how they were originally credited in the source material.
* Breach of Fandom's Gender Identity Guidelines
* Recurring harassment, defined as "a pattern of repeated offensive behavior that appears to a reasonable observer to intentionally target a specific person or [group of] persons"
* Continual edit warring
* Sockpuppetry and meatpuppetry, i.e the practice of having multiple accounts specifically to cause disruption and obstruct community consensus
* No clearly discernible intent to observe non-behavioral policies.
* Accounts with inappropriate usernames
* Breach of Fandom's Terms of Use, which will result in a local block and be reported to Fandom staff for a global block where necessary.

### Unacceptable reasons

Accounts and addresses may not be blocked for:

* Disagreeing with an administrator; this is conflict of interest
* "Cooling off" purposes; this usually only inflames the situation
* The user was blocked (with or without reason) on another wiki

## Duration of blocks

The duration of the block given should depend on the severity of the behavior and the likelihood of its repetition. However, the following should be kept in mind:

* In general, the first block should be of a reasonably short duration, with the length increasing progressively every time a further block is required.
* Anonymous users should **never** be blocked indefinitely. If you see any anonymous user blocked indefinitely, report it to an administrator for review.
* Blocking indefinitely in general can be avoided in a majority of cases, unless the offense is extreme (i.e. graphic or sexually explicit imagery uploaded; use of slurs, hate speech, etc.; repeated violations of policy; death threats).
	+ Sockpuppets that have been used maliciously should always be blocked indefinitely.

## Blocking notice and appeal

When blocking a user, the administrator must leave them with the ability to post on their own message wall to appeal their block. Unless the account is clearly only for the purposes of disruption, the administrator should also leave a message notifying the user about their block, its length, and the reason. However, if this talking privilege while blocked is abused for spamming, threatening, or harassing, this will be revoked.

Appealing your block needs to be done in Assume good faith, meaning that you should:

* Not assume they blocked you without reason
* Not spam/harass the administrator on other wikis
* Actually give them time to respond (24h at least)
* Respect their decision in the end

If you still feel like you were still **unfairly blocked** and for longer than 2 weeks, you can contact Staff and submit links to your blocked profile and the conversation you had with the administrator for review.