http://www.wikihow.com/Template:Usernameblocked I decided to create this template after finding out myself that it would not make sense for me (if I wereto be an administrator here on wikiHow) to falsely accuse someone of having an edit not conducive to the best interests of wikiHow. A user may have a username that violates policy, but they may have only constructive edits, and no vandalism, disruption, anything that disrupts the project. So, here you go. This template has been set up for approval to see what you guys would think about, compared to what I just said.

I’m not too sure if this is needed. If someone signs up with a username that violates policy, there’s a good chance the user is trolling. Also, the recommended plan of action for dealing with usernames is to first give {{username}}, which informs them of the issue and suggests to submit a request for a new username. If editing persists, whether good- or bad-faith, a block follows. A good-faith editor would most likely follow our suggestions to submit a request. I personally would write out a customized block message prior to giving the block. Otherwise, {{blocked|Username violates policy; contact Krystle or fill out this form to request a new username}} works fine.

The {{username}} is fine, one way or another with me. One can also insert codes, just like the NFD templates (if the person has a very, very similar name to an administrator or a very, very long name, etc). Both the mildly huge bold font and the background color isn’t the most appealing touch, especially towards innocent people… this is just my two cents :\

One reason I made the template is so that the users know what email address(es) to contact Krystle with. Another reason is to save bytes of data.

Why fully expose someone else’s personal information when the {{username}} template has an awesome Google form attached to it for people to fill out?:wink:

Hear hear!

Well then the template can be edited to include that link.:slight_smile:

This is an unnecessary template and I do not support it. We have username and blocked templates, and admins are more than able to provide reasons for blocking a user. Moreover, we would always rather have someone change their username and continue to contribute rather than suffer a permanent block for having a username in violation of the policy, so this template isn’t even really practical. In any case, admins deal with this sort of thing everyday so… yeah, this is not something we need.

The template contains text about what to do to change your username in such cases.

@McDonalds1 The user would have received a {{username}} template already, which includes the instructions to change your username. Again, admins have a procedure for dealing with this situation that seems to work. Thanks, but I don’t think we need any help with it.

Mmkay. I see everyone is disappointed with my opinion. Let me document how the template would be used here. A user would sign up with an inappropriate username. They would not be notified with the {{username}} template, unless someone was really good at remembering. The user would then assume good faith and then make constructive edits. This is where the template would be used. The user would then be blocked, and then the template would be placed on their talk page. The user that was blocked for having a username in violation of the username policy would then email Krystle using either of the email addresses mentioned in the template. Krystle would then change the user’s username, and then the user that was blocked would be unblocked, continuing to contribute to wikiHow constructively. Hopefully this makes sense to everyone.

No, it doesn’t make sense because the {{username}} template WOULD BE GIVEN by an admin BEFORE blocking the user.

The purpose of submitting a proposed template idea in the forums is to get the community’s opinion of the template. I do not favor the template, and the consensus seems to be that the community doesn’t favor it either. The purpose of the thread is NOT to try to convince everyone that we need something, or to argue every reasonable and well thought response that isn’t in favor of the template.

Looks a bit intimidating, in my opinion. Besides, I think we already have a template for this, if my memory serves my correctly.

In my opinion, the template is unneeded. Its purpose is already well-served by a more benign communication protocol. The precepts of the community are to assume good faith and to communicate directly with personal messages when possible. This template clearly does neither and seems overly harsh both in wording and in color choice.

@McDonalds1 Thanks for the suggestion here, and for going through the proper procedure of proposing this for community approval. I don’t quite understand the problem that this is solving. I don’t know about others, but one thing I really like to see is examples of situations in which this template would’ve helped things. One of the reasons people don’t see this as necessary is because people who deal with username issues (admins and patrollers) haven’t seen the current system fail. People who receive the {{username}} template typically either submit a username change request or, more often, just stop contributing (mostly the latter, and often because they were here to play around, not contribute constructively). If you do see examples of the current system not working, the first order of action should be to see if you can address it with personal, friendly notes. It’s when that fails that we start thinking of broader, more systematic solutions like templates. Not saying we’ve never jumped straight into a template before, just trying to provide some context of why some ideas fly, and some don’t. It’s not you, it’s that the idea doesn’t quite fit into the context of what’s happening in our community right now–at least not in a way that has been clearly explained yet:slight_smile:

This is an unnecessary template and I do not support it.

Right? I disagree with this template, sorry, so not needed

This template starts out with bold text saying “Your account has been blocked permanently from editing wikiHow due to having a username in violation of the username policy.” Then it goes on to say how to get it unblocked in regular text. This is confusing, permanent means permanent. This is a really harsh way to treat a new contributor. If I had gotten something like this in my early days, I would have felt offended and left “permanently” I think we need to keep playing nice and assume good faith.

+1