Thread:Montonius/@comment-2253300-20130109023433/@comment-2045915-20130109030144

I hold no hard feeling s about that episode. I did what I did to ensure the higest standard of quality; since the changes we made, everything has run quite smoothly. Now, in answer to your question, we used to suffer from similar problems when I first restarted this wiki. What you have to institute is a no-tolerance policy that lasts only until the wave of vandalism and trolling ends. But the two threats have to be dealt with differently. Here, we outright do not tolerate vandalism. You vandalise a page on this wiki, and you're banned permanently, that's it. There's no appeal. It stops vandalism in its tracks. Trolling is a little harder. When I first began, I also handed out permanent bans there, too, but I became overzealous with that approach, which led to the troubles. Since then, our policy has been much more nuanced and depends on the offense.

In general, anyone who tells an Admin or Moderator to 'F- off, or seeks to humiliate them in some way, or use sarcasm as a weapon, or any of that usual behaviour, will be either warned that they face a ban on the next instance of the behaviour, or will be banned outright for a single month if they were unusually aggregious to an admin or moderator. If they do it to a fellow editor who is not on the staff, they get a warning, and then a 1 month ban on the next instance of the behaviour. I have found, since the problems of a year ago, that just the warning of a ban is usually extremely effective at stopping the behaviour, but sometimes you get real nutjobs or people interested only in trouble, who you have to ban. Now, this has never happened yet, but any one who gets a 1 month ban twice and offends again will get the permaban. We do a three strikes policy now. But, to be honest, I've never yet permanetly banned anyone in the last year who wasn't a vandal because the warnings usually fix the problem now.

Unfortunately, for a weapon to be effective, they have to know you will use it. We manage to keep a lot of order now just by my reputation, and I actually have handed most enforcement problems off to my co-Admin, Algrim Whitefang. I would suggest that you immediately drop a permaban on all vandals, and give the warnings to the trolls. If the trolls continue to act out, use the 1-month ban hammer.

For this to be truly effective and to prevent people from saying that you are not acting legitimately, you need these rules stated clearly in the wiki's governing texts, which for us is the Important Links on the main page, and I am sure you have something similar. Additionally, and this is most important, in this one issue, at least, you must designate ONE person who is the final authority on all enforcement. I know you guys are more democratically organised than us here, but in this one area, you should have one person who has the final say. The other Admins can certainly chime in on any given case, and their input should always be considered, but as in any organisation, if you want things to be efficient and to get done, the final word must always come from one person legitimately empowered to make the decision.

I hope those suggestions are helpful, and they have certainly proved effective here in solving a lot of our former difficulties. If I can help in any other way, please do not hestitate to ask.