Dwarf Fortress Wiki:Block policy

Yay administrators! We get to come up with a block policy! How doth we handle this?

With extreme prejudice.
No, actually, I like the current policy - unwritten. People know when they're being obnoxious - Freakzoid knew it, and he went there anyway, including posting anonymously when he had been banned, and then posting to flip you grief after reducing his ban. If anything, you were too tolerant, allowing a weak-ass excuse to cut his ban in half - but I digress.
An unwritten policy says "There is an invisible, undefined line - so don't even come CLOSE to where you think it starts!" - and reasonable people won't. Any written policy invites quibblers and people who put one toe over the line and then two, and then three but only on occasion and they apologize right away and then argue about where the line actually was - phhhht. The tighter you try to define "a law", the more people rely on that definition rather than common sense and courtesy. You know what's acceptable, I know, and so does everyone else. And if/when they cross that line, it will be equally clear to all, and they'll know what a ban is like.
We can list "no religion, no RL politics, no this, no that" - but then we're back to defining those terms, and then the definitions, ad infinitum. If we want to write up some formalized complaint process, including 3rd party complaints (when the "victim" isn't bothered or doesn't want to make a fuss, but others think they should), that works for me - if two Beavis's are arguing, they might only be insulting each other, but it offends the entire site, and similarly if someone is attacked but doesn't feel like defending themselves, or someone crosses a line without a clear target.
My 2 dwarfbucks.--Albedo 11:51, 1 March 2010 (UTC)