User:The Wordsmith/Community sanctions

This page lists general sanctions that apply to all editors working in particular areas. Individual editors subject to editing restrictions are listed at Wikipedia:Editing restrictions.

Discretionary sanctions are a form of sanction imposed by administrators acting on the authority bestowed upon them by the Wikipedia community, which is usually the result of a discussion at the Administrators Noticeboard (or sometimes Administrators Noticeboard/Incidents). The community generally authorizes discretionary sanctions for use in a particular topic area, which is referred to as the "area of conflict".

Standard Community Sanctions

Authorization

Any uninvolved administrator may, on his or her own discretion, impose sanctions on any editor working on an article within the area of conflict if, despite being warned, that editor repeatedly or seriously fails to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behavior, or any normal editorial process. The sanctions imposed may include blocks of up to one year in length; bans from editing any page or set of pages within the area of conflict; bans on any editing related to a topic within the area of conflict or its closely related topics; restrictions on reverts or other specified behaviors; or any other measures which the imposing administrator believes are reasonably necessary to ensure the smooth functioning of the project.

Involvement

For the purpose of imposing sanctions under these provisions, an administrator will be considered involved if they have had recently or significantly:

• participated in an editorial dispute with the editor,
• participated editorially in a content dispute affecting the article, its closely related articles, or the topic area,
• shown strong personal support or opposition to the editor's position by his/her own actions, related to the content issue or the proposed sanctionable activity,
• interacted at a personal level with the editor, or with other editors with whom that editor is actively in dispute.

Previous interaction that is minor and non-contentious, or in a purely administrative capacity do not constitute administrator involvement.

Warnings

Prior to any sanctions being imposed, the editor in question shall be given a warning by an uninvolved administrator with a link to the decision authorizing sanctions (as well as this page); and, if appropriate, should be counseled on specific steps that he or she can take to improve his or her editing in accordance with relevant policies and guidelines.

Requesting Enforcement

If an editor fails to uphold reasonable standards of conduct, requests that discretionary sanctions be applied to that editor may be made at WP:PLACEHOLDER. The user filing the complaint must notify the editor against whom enforcement is requested, and must provide evidence (see Help:Diff) to support their assertions. If a request is made with insufficient or unclear evidence, it may be summarily dismissed.

Any uninvolved administrator in good standing may act upon a complaint. Resolved issues should be tagged with {{archivetop}} and {{archivebottom}}. Requests will be archived and moved off the main page 24 hours after the most recent comment.

Appeal

Discretionary sanctions imposed under these provisions may be appealed to the imposing administrator, the appropriate noticeboard (currently Wikipedia:Administrators Noticeboard or Wikipedia:PLACEHOLDER), or to the Arbitration Committee. Administrators are cautioned not to reverse such sanctions without familiarizing themselves with the full facts of the matter and obtaining a clear consensus to do so at the administrators’ noticeboard or another suitable on-wiki venue.

Logging

All sanctions imposed under these provisions are to be logged at the logging page listed below, specific to each topic area under discretionary sanctions.

Guidance

For administrators

In determining whether to impose sanctions on a given user and which sanctions to impose, administrators should use their judgment and balance the need to assume good faith and avoid biting genuinely inexperienced editors, and the desire to allow responsible contributors maximum freedom to edit, with the need to reduce edit-warring and misuse of Wikipedia as a battleground, so as to create an acceptable collaborative editing environment even on our most contentious articles.

For editors

Editors wishing to edit in these areas are advised to edit carefully, to adopt Wikipedia’s communal approaches (including appropriate conduct, dispute resolution, neutral point of view, no original research and verifiability) in their editing, and to amend behaviors that are deemed to be of concern by administrators. An editor unable or unwilling to do so may wish to restrict their editing to other topics, in order to avoid sanctions.

Affected areas

General sanctions are currently authorized for the following topic areas (please see the listed pages, as well as Wikipedia:General Sanctions, for the exact wording of the specific sanctions approved):

• Systematic insertion or deletion of the term "British Isles", anywhere on Wikipedia (Wikipedia:General sanctions/British Isles Probation Log).
• Pages related to Climate Change, broadly construed (Wikipedia:General sanctions/Climate change probation).
• Pages related to Barack Obama, broadly construed (Wikipedia:General sanctions/Obama article probation).
• Pages related to Sarah Palin, broadly construed (Talk:Sarah Palin/Article probation).
  • See Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive227#Proposed lifting of Sarah Palin community probation
• Article on Tony Abbot placed on WP:1RR (Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Archive213#Reversion restriction on an article?).

Discretionary sanctions with the wording listed on this page are authorized for the following topic areas:

• None at this time.

See also

• Boilerplate warning text for discretionary sanctions
• Full list of general sanctions, including areas under probation.