Bans

This page will list studies of Wikipedia bans. Most Wikipedia blocks and bans are justified, but some are abusive. Some have extended consequences. A “ban” is a formal decision, either by the community or the Arbitration Committee. The Arbitration Committee rarely bans for more than a year. When discretionary sanctions have been declared for a topic area, individual administrators may enforce sanction including a site ban for up to a year. The community may declare indefinite bans.

Bans are generally enforced with blocks. However, that a user is indef blocked (i.e., no expiration declared), is not a ban. Sometimes an indef block is called a “de facto ban,” if no administrator is willing to unblock, but, in fact, any administrator could decide to unblock. Unblocking a banned user without discussion would usually be considered improper. There are massive sock farms, up to a thousand socks blocked, with nobody ever having been banned.

Case studies:

Abd (that’s me!)

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