Austrian Economics Wiki:Blocking policy

Users may be blocked from editing for several reasons, including repeated vandalism, spam, or disruption to the wiki. Furthermore, the Mises Institute reserves the right to block editors for other reasons at its discretion.

Spam accounts

Spammers often use open proxies to create accounts and post new spam articles. In general, the process for dealing with such problems should be:

• Block the offending user (indefinitely, also block the IP address used and prevent emailing)
• Delete the spam page
  • Optionally, protect the spam page once deleted, to prevent re-creation
• Use the Check User tool to get the spammer's IP address (this requires the Check User right)
  • If the IP address is an open proxy (as it usually is), block it for a period of time (see Open proxies section below)

Open proxies

An open proxy is a proxy server that can be accessed from the internet, allowing users to mask their true IP address. They are commonly used to make editing truly anonymous; however, they make it easy for vandals to avoid blocks.

Therefore, IP addresses identified as open proxies should be blocked. To determine if an IP address is an open proxy, go to Wikipedia and enter the IP address. If that IP address is blocked on Wikipedia as being an open proxy, it can be blocked here as well.

There are surely better methods of determining if an IP address is associated with an open proxy; feel free to edit this page to add additional details.

An IP address that is currently associated with an open proxy may no longer be at some point in the future. Thus, only block open proxies for a fixed amount of time, such as 6 months.

When blocking an IP address associated with an open proxy, check only the "Prevent account creation" box. All other boxes should be left unchecked.

Users with the Check User right enabled are called "Checkusers." A list of current checkusers is available.