Blocking is the means by which an Administrator prevents a user account or IP address/range from editing the BBC Waterloo Road Wiki. Blocks are preventive rather than punitive measures used to prevent damage by dealing with vandalism and other offences. Block duration may vary, depending on the severity and longevity of vandalism, but in most instances a block can be lifted if the editor agrees to stop the damaging behaviour.
All users may post block requests on an admin's talk page.
When considering blocking, it is important to remember the axiom "Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to error"; article blanking or addition of fanon may be just a well-meant attempt to remove inaccurate information or expand the encyclopaedia. Always assume good faith, but remember that the rules apply to everyone equally.
Grounds for blocking
- General vandalism - duration of block depends on the severity of the vandalism
- 'Bad-faith' edits made with the intent to lower the quality of the wiki or disrupt the functioning of the community. In most cases, users should be warned prior to blocking, though final discretion is left to the administrators.
- Spam edits, these are made by user's posting irrelevant spam links in articles, or creating articles which are entirely spam is grounds for an infinite block.
- Move vandalism; when an article is moved to a nonsensical or inappropriate title, this is grounds for immediate indefinite bans.
- Inappropriate account naming. Creating an inappropriate account name - be it in terms of user impersonation/insult, or general rudeness/obscenity is also grounds for a no-warning infinite block.
- Fanon or fan fiction; users inserting false information will be warned and then blocked if they continue, or given a straight block without warning if they have inserted a significant amount of false information at once.
- Personal attacks - Users attacking other editors personally (in regards to anything) should be given one warning prior to a cool-off ban. The length of the ban is dependent on the severity of personal attacks.
- Edit wars - This is when editors who disagree about the content of a page repeatedly override each other's contributions. In some situations users may be blocked for upwards of 2 hours to allow tempers to cool and for discussion to be started on the article's talk page.
- Spoilers - Insertion of information about an episode that hasn't aired yet or characters that haven't appeared yet is grounds for a warning and then, if it persists, a one-month block. If the offender continues to insert spoilers after block has ended then block becomes infinite.
Personal attacks
One cannot block another for simply "being annoying", unless the annoying person in question is doing things bad enough to be deemed a personal attack, which is when a user deliberately insults or 'makes jibes' at another to bully or harass them, i.e. swear at them.
Vandalism
Vandalism is where a user either blanks a page, replaces all content of page with nonsense/vulgarity or inserts nonsense/vulgarity somewhere in the page. If an instance of vandalism seems minor enough to have been an accident then a warning maybe issued. If it is major enough to be obvious vandalism then the offender will be blocked infinitely with no prior warning. If an offender has been warned but persists, then they will be blocked.
Anonymous IP Fandom Users
If any offence is committed by an anonymous IP 'A Fandom User', ie a user who is not logged in (Formerly known as 'A Wikia Contributor'), the anon users will be permanently blocked without warning regardless of the severity of their offence, because we don't want anon IP users to edit this wiki at all, because offences are committed by them far too often. Anon IP users when blocked will not receive any of the Warning Templates on their message wall.