Banning Guidelines
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User's Guide
The Banning Guidelines are provided by the Wikimapia Administration to guide Advanced Users on the process of determining and banning an infringer.
Contents |
Analysis
Before using the banning tool it is important to distinguish between the types of Wikimapia guideline violations being committed:
- Deliberate vandalism (any deliberate action intended to corrupt information). Examples: inserting spam, porn images, deleting information which complies with Wikimapia guidelines, intentional adding of nonsense/false information to Wikimapia etc.
- Mistakes made by newcomers and/or inexperienced users due to misunderstandings about Wikimapia guidelines, tools and wiki concept. Examples: first experiments with “Add place” tool by a newcomer, drawing roads with polygons and etc.
You have to distinguish between these two types of violations. Try not to ban newcomers, teach them instead.
Recommendations for using banning system
- Punishment is not always necessary. Sometimes you can just correct the problem, and contact user with explanations.
- Assume good faith that every user is here to improve Wikimapia.
- Use common sense.
- Avoid extreme formalism and bureaucracy.
- Avoid preventive measures. A user cannot be punished if he/she has not violated the Guidelines, no matter what your experience tells you
- Do not ban without sorting out the case.
- If in doubt - discuss the case in the forum.
Banning procedure explanation
To start a ban you have to fill out the following fields:
1. Ban reason - In this field you must provide detailed reason for ban according to the guidelines. Note that the reason will be visible to the banned user. Try to explain it as clear as possible so user could understand it and avoid such actions in the future. Must be filled in English, translation may be also added here.
2. Proof links to user actions with explanation - Links to history revisions, user comments, forum posts or public messages that proofs user’s violations. Must be filled in English.
3. Link(s) to public warnings with explanation - Provide links to the warnings sent to the user personally or to discussion in the forum, where his violations were brought up for him. In case the user performs mass actions so quickly that he needs to be stopped immediately without prior warnings, you can leave this field blank. Must be filled in English.
4. Ban type - There are 3 types of ban:
- Edit map - the user is blocked from making changes on the map (adding and editing places, roads etc.)
- PMs and forum posts - the user is blocked from posting on the forum, sending personal messages and leaving comments.
- Full - the combination of previous two types, total restriction of all activities on the site and forum.
5. Ban length - There are five ban lengths:
- 6 hours
- 1 day
- 1 week
- 1 month
- permanent
6. Confirmation
After you have pressed “Start ban” button, you will be redirected to the confirmation page. In case you have made some mistake you can go back and correct it. Once you have pressed “Start ban” button on the confirmation page, the user will be blocked immediately.
7. Expiration
Upon the expiration of the period you specified the user will be automatically unblocked.
Ban overriding
You may override an existing ban with another one. To override an existing ban, you must perform the same actions as the initial ban procedure. Overriding a ban means the cancellation of a previous one and starting of a new one. Example:
“A user is banned for a week. Two days later, this ban is overridden by another one with the length of one month. The previous ban of a week has stopped and the new one of a month has started immediately. This means the user is now blocked for a month because of the overriding operation.”
The time that a user has been blocked for during the cancelled ban will not count. Only the new ban duration will count.
