Wikipedia:Contact school systems responsible for mass vandalism

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Contents

[edit] What this proposal is about and why it is needed

We all know that admins can just block vandals to stop vandalism. The problem is that their power is severely limited when it comes to shared IPs and proxies. For example, a block for vandalism lasting 24 hours is not uncommon when blocking a vandal IP, but that isn't an option with a shared IP. Unfortunately, this appears to have resulted in constant vandalism by anon. users editing from an IP that is registered to a school system. Blocks don't appear to be working very well, and this is probably for several reasons (all of them related to the maturity of the vandal.) This proposal came to mind after reading a comment on WP:VIP by another users wondering if a policy existed for dealing with this. I don't believe one currently exists for this particular problem.


[edit] The specifics

First off, this policy is not aimed for dealing with every single case of vandalism originating from an IP registered to a school system. It is meant for dealing with cases of constant AND long-term vandalism that have continued despite repeated warnings and multiple blocks. In other words, this would be a "last resort" measure. A rule of thumb should be that unless the vandalism has continued for at least a month and has required multiple reverts/edits to repair damage done to specific articles, this policy will not come into play. Here's what will be done under this policy when these conditions are met. Starting at the beginning of the next warning cycle (after a block but before a warning message such as test or test2 is posted), a warning will be posted upon the talkpage of the IP. It will state that this is the final time that Wikipedia will put up with the vandalism and that they will be blocked only one more time before sterner measures are taken. If and when the IP is blocked again, a message would be left on the talkpage stating that the IP has been blocked again... but if the vandalism continues after the block is lifted, the school system will be contacted in regard to the vandalism being committed by that IP. Any infraction after that results in an immediate contacting of the school system.

[edit] Countermeasures to help mitigate "collateral damage" by this policy

The contacted school system will be provided with the edit history of the vandalized articles in order to narrow down the number of users whop could be responsible for the vandalism. This countermeasure will probably work best with colleges and universities, but it may have some effect in other cases. For example, if vandalism is committed using an IP registered to a public school system on a day that the schools are closed to students, the chance of a student being responsible for the vandalism is slim to none. Likewise, colleges may have a photo ID requirement for access tp places where students can use a computer and keep track of the time that the ID is handed over to when the ID is returned to the student. Checking the time that the vandalism was committed against the attendance records and class schedules of an accused student could ebd up exonerating them as being wrongfully accused of vandalism. Furthermore, the time at which vandalism is committed can rule out certain places as to where the vandal was on the computer at the time of the vandalism. Classrooms and computer labs are locked up, libraries close; this limits the number of computers that would have been accessible to the vandal.

[edit] Voting

At this point, this policy shall not be voted upon. The reason? It probably should undergo some discussion and some revision before that should occur.