CZ:Moderator Group
- Constables, you might find it handy to bookmark this page!
Welcome to your friendly local Constabulary!
Our constables are Citizendium's "community managers" or "Sysops". They oversee adherence to basic policies, resolve behavioral — not editorial — disputes, and rein in troublemakers. Constables also review applications and create new accounts, and can place the "approved" template into articles at the request of an editor. They operate within a "separation of powers" and are held to a strict conflict of interest policy. All Citizendium constables hold at least a bachelor's degree and are at least 25 years old. For further information, see Constabulary Policy.
To "call a constable," please email constables@citizendium.org.
Getting Started
For new constables there are two places of interest: this page and "For reference". If you haven't already bumped into the "For reference", ask one of the other constables about it.
Some handy links for constables
- Constables, if a particular link or two is useful to you but not included, please add.
- General
- Constabulary Home
- Constabulary Policy (in Policy Outline)
- List of all constables
- MediaWiki how-to guide - note, Wikipedia's policy greatly differs from ours, but some of their technical how-tos are applicable.
- Professionalism
- New applicants
- Application Review Procedure
- Create an account
- User list
- Log in
- Defunct: New Account Review Procedure
- CZ:How did you hear about CZ?
- Blocking
- Deletion
- Media
- Category:All media
- Help:Images#Copyrights - Basic media policy and help
- Category:License_tags - The growing list of licensing/copyright tags.
- {{badimage}} - for placing on talk pages.
- {{cmediaflag}} - For use by constables to flag media of concern. Gives uploaders 10 days to clear up the concern before deletion.
- Category:Flagged media-constables - the place to monitor constable-flagged media.
- {{mediaflag}} - For use by contributors to flag media for review by a constable.
- Category:Flagged media - The place to monitor contributor-flagged media.
- Special:Newimages - To monitor newly uploaded images.
- MediaWiki:Uploadtext - - Place to edit the text appearing at the top of Special:Upload.
- MediaWiki:Licenses - Place to edits the available licensing options in the drop-down box at Special:Upload.
- Misc
- Special:BrokenRedirects
- Special:CheckUser
- Special:Ipblocklist
- Special:Log
- Special:Unwatchedpages
- How to fix cut-and-paste moves
- System messages
- Vandalism
A guide to constable procedures
- Constables, the following is the beginnings of a guide on how to do your job. Please help clarify and expand it as needed.
The constables mailbox and list
Constables require access to the constables@citizendium.org mailbox to perform their duties. To access it, request instructions from another constable.
We would like to keep it's "Inbox" emptied — have a short turnaround time for all messages, as far as possible. Most of the sub-folders should be self-explanatory. Do look in and read the contents of "For our reference".
Constables also need to to be subscribed to an internal-only list for constables only. As soon as you became a constable, Larry Sanger (at present) should have subscribed you. Contact him if not.
Responding to rude remarks, complaints, and flamebait placed on the wiki
Rude remarks shouldn't be tolerated; see Professionalism. If a paragraph of text contains personal attacks or other abusive language, constables should replace the whole paragraph (or a series of thus problematic paragraphs) with the {{civil}}
template, which generates this message:
Text here was removed by the Constabulary on grounds of civility. (The author may replace this template with an edited version of the original remarks.)
Complaints by contributors about other contributors — authors, editors, and constables — should be made to constables@citizendium.org. Accordingly, such complaints are not permitted on the wiki. If a paragraph of text contains any such complaint, constables should replace the whole paragraph with the {{nocomplaints}}
template, which generates this message:
A comment here was deleted by The Constabulary on grounds of making complaints about fellow Citizens. If you have a complaint about the behavior of another Citizen, e-mail constables@citizendium.org. It is contrary to Citizendium policy to air your complaints on the wiki. See also CZ:Professionalism.
Making repeated complaints about other users on the wiki can, after [how many?] warnings, lead to a user's at least temporary removal from the project. Abuse is dealt with much more strictly; see Constabulary Blocking Procedures and We aren't Wikipedia.
Needlessly inflammatory remarks are to be deleted as well. The Constabulary considers remarks needlessly inflammatory if any reasonable person should know that the remarks might provoke an acrimonious and unhelpful (e.g., off-topic) controversy--in other words, a pointless "flame war." Again, if a paragraph of text contains any such remarks, constables should replace the whole paragraph with the {{inflammatory}}
template, which reads:
Text here was removed by the Constabulary on grounds that it is needlessly inflammatory. (The author may replace this template with an edited version of the original remarks.)
In general, but especially for minor issues, constables should engage people privately (aka off-wiki) when possible. If urgency is an issue, consider leaving a note on the user's talk page to inform them of your arriving email. To email any user, regardless of whether they have enabled "E-mail this user", go to that user's user page, then go to "Block user" (actually blocking requires a second step). Their email address will appear next to their name.
But which template to use?
- If a comment contains personal abuse, use
{{civil}}
. - If a comment does not contain personal abuse, but contains complaints about another person, then use
{{nocomplaints}}
. - If a comment contains neither abuse nor complaints, but is needlessly inflammatory, then use
{{inflammatory}}
.
In short, use exactly one of these templates as applicable in exactly this order: {{civil}}
, {{nocomplaints}}
, {{inflammatory}}
.
Page deletion
To draft
For now, see Category:Speedy Deletion Requests and CZ:Article Deletion Policy.
Anti-vandalism procedures
See Anti-vandalism procedures.
The {{Approved}} template
See Approval Process with particular attention to this section.
All other Constabulary templates
- Constables, you can create new templates whenever the need for them arises.
- Professionalism Policy
- {{civil}}
- {{nocomplaints}}
- {{inflammatory}}
- Acronyms
- {{acronym}},
- Or use {{ }} for a rather humorous version
- Note: The above two should be used with an operant from the acronym list in the form {{Acronym|NPOV}}, {{Acronym|POV}}, and so forth.
Note: follow placement of all the below templates with ~~~~.
- Image problems
- {{ }} - for user authored content they forgot to license.
- {{badimage}} - use for uploader's talk page, says image will be deleted unless fixed.
- {{ }} - use if it appears image uploader may not be active. Place at article talk page where image appears.
- {{fairuse}} - for when a contributor uploads a "fair use" image. Prods them to instead seek permission to use it or it may be deleted.
- {{ }} - for images deleted without warning or after warning was given but with no action.
- "Content is from Wikipedia?" problems
- {{wpcheckbox}}
- For offering help
- {{ }} - to new young authors only that seem to be doing things wily-nilly.
- {{ }}
- {{workgroup introduction}}
- Account creation