Worms Wiki:Administration Policy

Here are the policies and guidelines for administration and bureaucracy on the Worms Wiki. All admins and bureaucrats must follow these rules in order to maintain balance on this wiki.

This policy may only be changed after either a community discussion or an administrator consent.

General

 * Manual of Style — Encourage users to read the (currently incomplete) Manual of Style before editing if they haven't already.
 * Article protection — Please do not protect articles solely for the purpose of ending or winning an editing dispute (commonly referred to as an "edit war") between two or more users, or to prevent one from ensuing. If an editing dispute begins, try your best to break it up and either keep both revisions for the article or whichever revision is preferable (for not only you, but also other users if they've already debated over the dispute), depending on the situation. If the same users continue the dispute or begin another one later, send both users official warnings on their talk pages, and block them if they refuse to comply. Protect articles only if it is frequently vandalized.
 * Article deletion — Do not delete important pages on the wiki (e.g the Worms Armageddon article) as long as other users, or admins and bureaucrats, concur with its deletion. They also should be deleted for a good reason. You may delete spam/useless articles without permission, but if it isn't spam or entirely useless, always provide a good reason.
 * Wiki customization — Do not customize the wiki without the permission of other admins or bureaucrats (e.g changing the wiki's logo, background, or skin) or a community consensus if necessary. This also applies for editing the wiki's "CSS", Wiki Navigation, "WikiFeatures", etc. More minor features in the wiki, however, may be customized without permission or user agreement (e.g badges).
 * Assume good faith — Please be understanding towards new users on the wiki. Sometimes they may do things that could irritate you (e.g edit carelessly or make mistakes), but you must assume good faith and believe that they are only trying to help, so you should help them too by encouraging them to read the wiki's policies, guidelines, and the aforementioned Manual of Style. Never assume that they are trying to make malicious edits to ruin your wiki, unless it really looks like vandalism. This is one of the most important policies on Wikia.
 * Everyone is equal — Please remember that admins, bureaucrats, and even the founder are not in charge of the wiki or superior to other users - they only have certain privileges that regular users don't which they use to help and improve the wiki, such as deleting unneeded articles, blocking abusive users, customizing the wiki, etc. You must not condescend to other users or treat them unfairly/disrespectfully because they aren't admins like you, and you also must not command them to do something, and instead, ask them politely. Abusive/tyrannical admins or bureaucrats would only serve to significantly undermine a user's interest in staying on the wiki, and such admins/bureaucrats must be demoted for the wiki's own good. Users of all groups must respect each other and it is your job to maintain this task.

Blocking

 * Give second chances — If a user does something wrong, such as harassing other users for no reason or sporting an immature demeanor, always send them an official warning on their talk page first before blocking anyone. Tell them what they did wrong and that they shouldn't do it again. The warning should be as formal as possible and not rude or derogatory, as harassing/scorning the user would only be detrimental to your status as admin. However, you should always block users if they vandalize, no matter the amount or severity of the vandalism strike. The block length should vary from one day to permanent - if a vandal removes a sentence from an article or inserts some gibberish, they should immediately be blocked for one or two days. If they remove all content from several articles, rename articles, spam other places, etc. then they must be permanently blocked, or at least for a year.
 * Be reasonable — Once you block a user, do not leave your block summary blank. You must always provide a reason for blocking the user, either use one of the default block reasons (e.g "Intimidating behaviour/harassment") or write your own. If you block a user who has seemingly done nothing wrong without providing a reason, then it could easily be assumed that you blocked an innocent user for no reason. Doing this consistently may result in a warning from bureaucrats, and eventually, demotion.
 * Blocking isn't punishment — Please remember that blocking a user isn't any form of punishment or discipline, and is merely a preventative measure to stop the user from causing more harm to the wiki. As stated earlier, admins/bureaucrats are not in charge, superior to other users, or the boss of other users, and they have no right to try and discipline or punish a user in any way. Therefore, it is highly recommended to not think of blocking as a form of punishing users for what they've done, and instead, a method of stopping them from vandalizing or hurting other users' feelings any further.
 * Fake accounts — If a vandal returns with a sock-puppet account, block them permanently and immediately. If said vandal constantly returns with multiple accounts, continue to permanently block each account until the vandal gives up. If you are skeptical that it isn't the same user, however, try to ask staff for a "CheckUser" result on Community Central to make sure that the vandal has the same I.P. address, and is therefore, a sock-puppet account. Admins and bureaucrats must not create any fake accounts to use on the wiki as well - doing so would immediately result in demotion.
 * Off-wiki business — Anything that may have happened outside the wiki should never be a reason for blocking a user (e.g Skype, Facebook, Community Central, another wiki, etc.), or a disagreement between user and administrator or the administrator disliking the user for any reason. Users offending other users or administrators can only be blocked when discussed with another administrator.

Chat

 * Chat moderating — Just like chat moderators, you must make sure that the participants of the chat follow the Chat Guidelines. Politely ask (but not command) a user to stop, if they're doing something wrong. If they refuse to comply, kick them once. If they return just to continue causing trouble, ban them from chat for one day at most. The ban length could vary, depending on what the user has done. Sock-puppeting in chat would result in a permanent ban for the sock-puppet account and a warning plus kick to the original account. For more info, click here.
 * Abusive moderators — Both admins and bureaucrats have the privilege to kick, chat ban, or demote a chat moderator. If a chat moderator is being abusive towards users or isn't following the Chat Guidelines, they should be kicked, and then banned for two days if they continue. If they still cannot cope with doing their job properly after their ban expires, then they'll be demoted, and a new chat moderator would have to take their place. Do not be afraid to kick, chat ban, or demote a chat moderator, as long as they aren't following the rules.

These policies apply to bureaucrats as well.

General

 * User promotion — If you are willing to promote a user to either a rollback, admin, or bureaucrat, you must do it through a community consensus. If not possible, it must at least be a consensus between you and other admins/bureaucrats. If a user wishes to become an admin, they must do so here.
 * User demotion — If you are willing to demote a user, either a rollback or admin, you must do it through a community consensus, similarly to user promotions. Users could vote on whether they agree that the user should be demoted or not. If not possible, it must at least be a consensus between you and other admins/bureaucrats. (In some cases, voting or community consensus is not necessary, as you could also immediately demote the user if they've done something that doesn't require voting/consensus, such as blocking users who haven't been proven guilty according to the blocking policy above, deleting pages without consent of other administrators or causing general harm to the wiki. In most situations, consensus of other administrators/bureaucrats will suffice.) However, bureaucrats can only be demoted by staff and not by other bureaucrats. If you want an abusive bureaucrat gone, try and get people to vote and send the results to staff so they could do the rest.
 * Inactivity — Administrators and bureaucrats can be demoted for inactivity. The user should be inactive for at least 3 months, while no other bureaucrat knows the proper reasoning behind this inactivity (or when the reason is not seen as proper). An administrator or bureaucrat is considered inactive when less than three main-space edits are being made per month by that user.