Thread:Montonius/@comment-4811793-20120614004957

Hello,

We have received some complaints about the blocking policies on this wiki being overly harsh and scaring away new users. While Wikia respects the right of each community to set its own standards for acceptable behavior, the length of the bans combined with frequent lack of warning does seem a little intimidating so I wanted to make you aware of the situation. Admins are advised to give a warning to people before banning them, because this gives users a chance to correct problem behaviors and make sure they are following the wiki policies. It's generally a good idea to start off with a smaller span of time like 1 to 3 days, because initially you want that first block to get your point across and to help the user improve. A block of 100 years for a first offense will discourage potential users from contributing and may impact the growth of your community. Of course in the case of spam and vandalism, a harder edge is entirely appropriate. But where users make a good faith mistake or misinterpret a rule like the Cannon Material Policy, you may wish to consider adopting a slightly softer touch. You can find out more about best practices for blocking here: http://community.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Brandon_Rhea/Bringing_down_the_banhammer:_Best_practices_for_blocking.

Thanks. 