A Ban or a Block is a drastic measure an admin can invoke if warnings fail or otherwise clearly have no use. Bans can be given for a number of reasons, from not following the rules to refusing to cooperate to outright harrassment. A ban can be short (the smallest amount suggested by Wikia is two hours) or long (the largest amount suggested by Wikia is a year) and in the worst cases it can be infinite.
Ban levels[]
- Chat ban: A chat ban is the lowest level of ban that can be applied. It only prevents an account from entering the Monster High Wiki's chat, but the rest of the wiki is still open to it.
- Ban: A regular ban restricts an account's access to all of the wiki but the account's talk page (though it can be altered to include that too).
- Global ban: A global ban can only be done by Community Central. It prevents an account from accessing any and all wikis and only happens if there's widescale complaints about the account.
- Account deactivation: Account deactivation, which is a permanent measure, is not necessarily a ban, as a user can request their account to be deactivated too. Nonetheless, if it's not voluntarily, an account deactivation qualifies as the most drastic of bans because it is permanent. The most common reason for a non-troll account to be deactivated is Community Central finding out the user is not 13 years of age yet, which is a requirement to be allowed an account in the first place.
Ban reasons[]
Wikia by default offers admins the following reasons to block a user:
- Inserting false information
- Removing content from pages
- Spamming links to external sites
- Inserting nonsense/gibberish into pages
- Intimidating behaviour/harassment
- Abusing multiple accounts
- Unacceptable username
One important ban reason that is somewhat unique to this wiki is the auto-ban that occurs after a big leak. Since many users will post material of or about the leak, the admins can't keep up if they have to explain to every single account why their recents post(s), upload(s), or addition(s). As such, after a leak, the admins can and will ban anyone who posts anything relating to the leak automatically for a period of one month. If this situation goes into effect, it is warned for on the main page and the community corner.
Ban conditions[]
Wiki offers the following ban 'customizing' options to admins
- Prevent account creation
- Prevent user from sending e-mail
- Prevent this user from editing their own talk page while blocked
- Automatically block the last IP address used by this user, and any subsequent IP addresses they try to edit from
- Watch this user's user and talk pages
- Prevent logged-in users from editing from this IP address
"Prevent account creation" and "Automatically block the last IP address used by this user, and any subsequent IP addresses they try to edit from" are marked by default, meaning an admin has to consciously turn them off before finalizing the ban. This means that in almost all cases, these conditions are included in the ban.
There is one important consequence to the second auto-option: When an IP address is blocked along with the account, that means that all accounts that make use of the IP address are blocked too (though it won't show up in those accounts' block log). In other words, any account accessed from the same address as the blocked account will find themselves blocked.
Though this may seem unfair to the other accounts affected, it is not the admins' duty to presume multiple people to be active from one address. Rather, it is the admins' duty to make sure the block is effective. After all, the other accounts may as well be sockpuppet accounts, rendering the block ineffective if the IP address isn't blocked along.
As for the other four options, they're never activated under the initial block, but if necessary may be activated later on.
What to do if banned[]
Depending on circumstances, a ban is negotiable. Bans are not administered for the fun of anyone, so if nothing too bad caused the ban, a user is free to ask an admin to reduce or remove the ban. The steps are as such:
- Leave a message on your talk page or contact the admins through Community Central.
- Approach the admin that banned you. They have full knowledge on the reasons of the ban and can judge the situation better.
- Accept whichever outcome. Admins aren't likely to deny the request, so if they do, it's because you did something bad. Own up to that and wait for the ban period to come to an end on its own.