User blog comment:IvyLover/How to give users infinite blocks./@comment-452-20141013015032

It is my opinion that any admin who issues an infinite block is a poor admin who is not mature or responsible enough to fulfil their role. The blocklist is not score board, either for vandals or for blocking admins.

I have been an admin for 3 years, and have found excessively long blocks to be completely unnecessary, especially for a first time offender, and I do not think it is ever necessary to give an infinite block.

The majority of the time when an obvious vandal is blocked for 1 day, they never ever return. If they do vandalise again after a day, you block them for a week, then a month, as necessary. But this rarely happens.

Now, I'm not saying that I've never encountered a persistent vandal - I'm currently blocking one who constantly returns after month blocks from a variety of different IP addresses to add nonsense about My Little Pony. So I've blocked all of his IP ranges until 2015, hopefully he will have grown out of it by then. If he celebrates the new year by repeating his past pony nonsense, then I will re-block all the same IP ranges until 2016, with the block reason "Extended range block for returning vandal".

Although just blocking him "indefinitely" would probably be worth it - there is no need to do so when a year block will suffice.

Blocks are not "punishment", they are "preventative measures", and should be used responsibly. It is not "preventative" to indefinitely block someone who wasn't going to return anyway.