Warnings

Rule-breakers will experience warnings when they break at least one rule. Here, you will learn about the warning policy.

The warning policy is a policy used to give rule-breakers warnings when they break rules. The number of warnings they get before an infinite block can vary, depending on the severity of the offence and what rule they broke. You get no warnings if the offence is more serious, like badge farming and sockpuppeting.

## Warnings

A user will receive a warning when they break our rules. Some rules will warrant up to 4 warnings before a block; some only warrants just one or two; some will result in an immediate block.

Badge farming and edit warring will result in a single-level warning, usually once, but sometimes twice.

Any accounts that have been proven to be sockpuppets, impersonate other users, confirm that their age is under 13, or otherwise have inappropriate avatars/usernames may be blocked without warning.

Other rules broken can result in this warning process below.

### Warning process

1. When the rule-breaker is seen, they usually gets a level 1 or 2 warning.
2. If the rule-breaker ignores the warning and continues the offence, they may get a higher-level (3-4) warning.
3. If they continue the offence after their final warning, the admin may issue a block.
4. If they apologize, the warning and block give expires.

## Warning templates

Four warning templates can be used to give rule-breakers warnings. This is how each template works:

* Warning levels 1 and 2 - This is used to warn people to stop doing something that breaks the rules.
* Warning level 3 - This is used to notify that any further rule breaking might result in a block.
* Warning level 4 - This is used to notify that this is their only/final warning. If they break the rules after they ignore the warning, they will be blocked.

## Warning consequences

Rule-breakers will experience consequences when they break rules.

* Breaking one of these rules will result in a warning from an admin.
* Usually, up to four warnings are given before they get an infinite block from the wiki.
* No warnings are given if the offence was severe, or if they break a rule that is not in the list above.
* Repeated instances may result in the final warning, and if they ignore the final warning, he/she may get a block of varying lengths, depending on the severity or the rule(s) they've broken.

If you follow the rules described here, you won't have to worry about these consequences. If you have any questions about these warnings, contact one of the active admins. A list of admins can be found here.

## Being blocked

If a rule-breaker continues to break a rule after they've been given a warning, or if the offence is severe, an admin may issue a block. These can range from as short as a few days to permanent, depending on the severity. Once blocked, an admin will place a message on the user stating why they're blocked, how long, and what they can do to improve next time.

When blocking, be sure to provide a reason for your block. You can use the block template or a simple reason, since templates work on block reasons. If no reason is given, you may want to use {{Blocked}} as the block reason.

## Being unblocked

There's a chance that the user can appeal stating that they're sorry and want to contribute again. If sockpuppeting, badge farming, or impersonation occurs, then the request will be declined.

If a user wants to be unblocked, they must leave an unblock request ticket, and when an admin sees it, they'll place a block appeal message and will give them three steps:

1. An admin will leave a message as to stating why they want to be unblocked.
2. If explained, an admin will tell the user to read the rules and the warning policies. Reading the warning policies will help the user to understand about warnings, blocks, and being unblocked.
3. If the user states they've read the rules/warnings policies, and they're sorry that they won't do it again, the admin will lift the block, and they can contribute legitimately.