User blog comment:Sannse/How to Get Unblocked/@comment-26474238-20140717000314/@comment-8-20140717191955

VSTF are limited to intervening in cases of vandalism or spam. They are not involved in social issues, so generally not people contesting blocks (unless those blocks were set by the VSTF of course)

As for staff, there is no set-in-stone criteria for our intervention. We look at each situation on a case-by-case basis, looking at the context as well as the events.

Some of the questions we ask ourselves (or the rest of the Community Team) are things like: is intervention really necessary? would this resolve on it's own? is intervention ultimately good for the wikia? is this something that the admins could deal with? and even, is this the best use of the time I have, or would it be better to work on another case?

It's always a combination of different factors, and rarely easy to say specifically what tips the balance either way