This is the Blocking Policy currently in effect on CityVille wiki. It deals with types of vandalism, and how they should be responded to.
Section 1: What is vandalism?
Simply put, vandalism is any act of making an edit that will harm the wiki. We call these such edits "bad faith edits". When the user or IP makes them, they intend to harm the article. Vandalism is not acceptable here or on any other wiki, and should be undone upon identification.
Types of Vandalism
There are three main types of vandalism:
Spam
Spam refers to the inserting of pointless or unrelated info into an article. Things like "hjfkhd" and "Apples!" in an article about Cows would be considered spam.
Removal
Removal refers to vandalism by removing valuable content from pages. This can be easily identified when looking at the article. Things like removing a key word to a sentence are also considered removals.
Other
Other vandalism refers to vandalism that does not fit into the above categories. This would include moving a page to a bad name, swearing, and more.
Section 2: Dealing with vandalism
Dealing with vandalism can be difficult, but there are a few steps to follow.
Step 1: Undoing the vandalism
Before anything else, make sure that the edit is vandalism. Be sure to check the pages history (press "h" while viewing the article, or click the button at the top of the page), and compare some of the most recent edits to find on which edit the page was vandalized. Once you have found the vandalizing edit, undo it.
If you are unsure whether or not an edit is vandalism, just ask an admin. There is a list in the special pages.
Step 2: Warning the user or IP
Once you have undone the edit, go to the talk page of the user or IP that did the vandalizing. In some cases, the vandalism was an honest mistake on the part of the doer, so once at their talk page leave them a polite message telling them what they did and not to do it again. If you wish, you may use the warning template; be sure to read the page before using the template.
All vandals get three warnings:
- {{warn1|<page vandalized>}}~~~~
- {{warn2|<page vandalized>}}~~~~
- {{warn3|<page vandalized>|~~~~}}
If any user has already received three warnings, report them to an administrator.
Step 3: Blocking the user or IP
If the user or IP continues to vandalize pages, then they will be blocked from editing and commenting. Below is a table with the "crime" and "punishment". However, administrators are allowed to use their discretion when choosing to block a user and may be more or less harsh than the guideline below, depending on the situation.
| Offense type | Warning? | First block | Second block | Third block | Fourth block | Impersonating another user | Yes | 1 Month | 1 Month | 1 Year | - | Moving pages to a bad name | Yes | 3 Days | 1 Week | 1 Month | 1 Year | Inappropriate username | No | Indefinite | - | - | - | Removal | Yes | 3 Days | 1 Week | 1 Month | 1 Year | Explicit bad language/racism | Yes | 1 Week | 1 Month | 5 Months | - | Swearing | Yes | 1 Day | 3 Days | 1 Week | 1 Month | Uploading inappropriate images | Yes | 3 Days | 1 Week | 1 Month | 1 Year | Spamming | Yes | 3 Days | 1 Week | 1 Month | 1 Year | Identified spambots | No | 1 Months | 1 Year | 1 Year | 2 Years |
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After a one day block, the vandal will get one more warning, and after that they will be blocked for a longer period of time. All other lenths of blocks result in an immediate reblocking.