CZ:Moderator Group

Welcome to your friendly local Constabulary!

Basic info

To "call a constable," please write constables@citizendium.com

Our list of constables

Some handy links for constables

Many of these links may not be visible to non-constables.

Listed below are the features, the functions associated with the features, and what we use those functions to do.

Block user

• Block IP address, email, or username: basic vandalism response is to block the username; we also block usernames for real names policy enforcement
• Prevent new account creation given IP, email, or domain: if a vandal might create new accounts, prevent him from doing so by checking "Prevent account creation"

Check user

• Look up IP addresses given username: when a vandal creates multiple accounts from the same IP address, ban the IP address using Block user; but the first step is to look it up using this tool
• Look up usernames given an IP address: use this to check if a vandal at a given IP address has created other usernames
• Get all edits associated with an IP address: use this to see what vandalism from a given IP address needs to be undone

List of blocked IP addresses and usernames

• Find recent blocks and list contributions: a way to list quickly the "contributions" made by vandals

User creation log

• Lists newly created accounts: an efficient way to scan new accounts, to check for well-formed names, people who haven't yet been welcomed, and review new bios

Block log

• Lists recently blocked usernames, IP addresses, e-mail addresses, and domains: used to tell which accounts have already been blocked by other constables; useful together with the user creation log

Constable procedures

Constables, the following is an informal guide to how to do your job.

Account blocking

Constables are able to block accounts for various reasons. Here is how and when.

Ill-formed names

Our binding policy on what names are acceptable and unacceptable is found on the create account page. A few extra notes for constables:

• We don't like it, but we will accept lowercase names, names written in CamelCase, and the occasional other weird variant.
• We generally block accounts created in the form "F. M. Last". But a good idea is to put something like this in your block explanation: "please contact constables@citizendium.org if you can show that you publish under this name".
• If someone happens to have the name of some famous person, or some other unlikely name, but which could be a real name, then the procedure is to ask the person for some proof that it is in fact his/her name.

The easiest way to block an ill-formed name is to look at recent changes or the user creation log and click "block," found next to the offending username. Occasionally (for whatever reason) you need to get to the "block user" page directly. That is linked above.

When using the block user page, we always give a reason for blocking, such as "Incorrectly created account (full name needed)."

Vandalism

The main way to stay on top of vandalism is to monitor recent changes on a regular basis, and ban vandals as soon as they appear. We aim to have at least one constable on the wiki at all times as a sort of vandalism watch.