User:Reception123/Meta policy (draft)

From Miraheze Meta, Miraheze's central coordination wiki

This is a draft for a policy for Meta. Feel free to edit it

Meta is the central Miraheze wiki. Its purpose is requesting wikis, providing central information for users, documenting Miraheze's services and general community discussions between users. A policy needs to be applied at Meta to ensure that the purposes above can be accomplished without any issues.

General (and blocks)[edit source]

  • Users on Meta should be respectful and act civil to anyone else on Meta in any situation (discussion, request, etc.). If a person does not respect this (insults another user, is not civil to another user, deletes another user's comments in RfCs [1) this is Stewards' issue not Meta administrators 2) don't you think that's a bit too specific? -Reception123] [1) RfCs are posted on Meta, so this is fair game for a policy about what should appear on Meta; 2) If you want to drop the part "in RfCs" and make this example more general, that's fine, but the example of removing someone else's words as an incivility should definitely remain. Robkelk (talk) 00:51, 18 April 2017 (UTC)] etc.) they could be blocked for a period of time at the discretion of the blocking administrator
  • Harassment and/or intimidation is not allowed on Meta and will also result in a block that is determined by the blocking administrator.
  • Spam is forbidden on Meta and is checked by extensions such as TitleBlacklist and AbuseFilter. Spammers and spambots will be blocked indefinitely.
  • Advertising is also forbidden on Meta per the ToU and will also result in an indefinite block.
 Comment: The phrase about deleting comments from RFC contradicts the phrase about no insults or incivility. If a user makes derogatory comments at an RFC, any user should be allowed to remove them. Amanda (talk) 17:59, 17 April 2017 (UTC)
 Comment: I don't think this is specifically clear-cut. I certainly do not agree with bad language, intimidating behaviour and incivility anywhere on Meta etc., however, the deleting of other people's comments shouldn't be done by just anyone at any time. One person's idea of being offended could be very different to another's (and I am not just talking about removing bad language etc.) Someone could be offended by a person's potentially innocent (but maybe badly worded) comment believing it to be disrespectful, when in fact it could be read as inoffensive by everyone else. Who's to say that this easily offended person won't just start removing anything they deem inappropriate. The whole situation could become very complex and people's reactions quickly heated. So, with this in mind, maybe derogatory terms, bad language, bullying and incivility etc. should either be discussed on respective talk pages to alert Stewards to the possibility of offending material, which can then be assessed and subsequently removed by said stewards if it is deemed inappropriate. OR a steward is contacted via message and told that way instead. This may seem long-winded but it goes through the proper channels and at least that way users cannot go around Meta deleting any text they personally see as unfit or offensive. I understand if Stewards do not like this suggestion as it could lead to further workloads. User's, however, should be able to remove material they believe to be inappropriate on their own talk pages only. Borderman  talk | contribs | email 19:53, 17 April 2017 (UTC)
Deleting someone else's comments - making that person into an unperson - is the ultimate incivility on a wiki. Disagreement is not disrespect. (And I see from the page history that Amanda has already tried to delete my words here twice. Doing it once is incivil behaviour; doing it twice is harassment and intimidation. I refuse to be intimidated by such behaviour.) --Robkelk (talk) 00:51, 18 April 2017 (UTC)

IP blocks[edit source]

IP blocks are not indefinite, and must be made with a specific period of time depending on what has been done.

Per the No open proxies policy any proxies discovered on Meta will be blocked for a maximum period of one year or six months.

Pages[edit source]

Pages created on Meta should only be in the purpose of informing or helping the Miraheze community. Pages that do not relate with the Miraheze directly or help users on Miraheze will be deleted. Any pages that do not respect the ToU or the "General (and blocks)" section will also be deleted.

This needs to be tightened up - spammers often claim that their product links inform and help the community. Is any non-commercial content that helps a single member of the community acceptable? Does the content need to relate to creation, maintenance, and deletion of wikis? --Robkelk (talk) 16:44, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

Userpages[edit source]

A userpage is a page where any user can write information about themselves. Userpages that include random information, advertising or spam will be deleted by a Meta administrator. If a user blanks their userpage, it is understood that they are requesting deletion unless they specify otherwise in the summary.

How does one define "random information" on pages "where any user can write information about themselves"? If this cannot be defined, then it should not be listed in the reasons to delete a page in the User namespace. --Robkelk (talk) 16:41, 17 April 2017 (UTC)