User blog comment:IvyLover/How to give users infinite blocks./@comment-452-20141013015032/@comment-452-20141013044851

I didn't know there was a crowd, I came up "infinite blocks without justification are never justified" on my own.

it's safe to assume with most vandals that their sole purpose is to harm the wiki. But it is simply not necessary to use extended blocks for most vandals.

My opinion is based on the fact that the majority of vandals never return after a short block, and that in 3 years I've only seen 2 vandals who remained active for longer than 6 months. Do the majority of vandals on the SpongeBob wiki always return? Even after being blocked for a year?

My main concern is blocking indefinitely for a first offence. In the case of "pornography on a children's wiki", you could still block for a month, or a year, for the first offence, then indefinitely for a second offence, after it has been "proven necessary". If they're persistent enough to return after being blocked for a month, or a year, they're probably just going to go to starbucks and sign up for a new account before the block is over anyway.

When I became an admin, I removed all the infinite blocks the previous admins had made. None of those users ever returned. I highly encourage everyone to remove any blocks which have been in place for longer than a year. (Unless the block log on the unblock screen shows a history of persistence, obviously)

A real life comparison would be the difference between saying "Get out of my store" and "You're barred from my store for life, if I ever see you again I'm calling the police". They both get the job done, but one is unnecessary overkill for a first offence.

In the specific case of unacceptable usernames, such as "User:SpongeBob_Wiki", here's how I deal with it:
 * 1) Leave them a message telling them that the username is not appropriate and ask them to choose another.
 * 2) Block them for a month if they edit using it, without blocking the IP.

For the record, I have encountered a user attempting to use the name of the wiki, this is how I dealt with it, and it wasn't an ongoing problem.

edit: More specifically, when they signed up, they made two edits, and I said: I didn't block them, and they didn't edit again until a month later, at which time I blocked them for 1 year and said: That was 3 years ago, so the block hasn't been active for the last 2 years, and they never returned under that username. I have no idea if they signed up for a different one.
 * "Your username is inappropriate, as it may cause confusion to new users. Please use a more individual username."
 * "As I stated almost a month ago, your username is inappropriate - please either use Special:Contact to ask for your username to be changed or simply sign up with a new username."