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Administrators are given the ability to administerblocks to users when appropriate. A blocked user is usually restricted from editing, among other things. In a general sense, blocks are a last resort for behaviour that has the potential to damage Wikifunctions or disrupt its collegial atmosphere. Blocks may be sitewide or partial (affecting only certain actions). In this way, blocking is designed to be apreventative measure and not apunitive one; "cool-down" blocks are not condoned.

Blocks may be applied for a number of reasons. The more common of these are detailed below:

• Vandalism. Disruptive editing may result in a block. For example:
  • Insertion of gratuitous vulgarity
  • Gibberish text
  • Removal of content from pages
• Spam.
• Copyright violations.
• Edit warring.
• Personal attacks orharassment. Accounts and IP addresses which are used primarily to create a hostile environment for another user may be blocked. Good faith disputes between users, however, should be brought toproject chat for outside input. Tracking a user's contributions for policy violations is not harassment.
• Unauthorized or non-responsivebot accounts. Bot accounts must be authorized by the Wikifunctions community. Questionable bot-like editing that cannot be explained by the user should be blocked until discussion takes place. Bot proposals can be discussed atWF:Bots orproject chat. Bot approval can be sought atWF:Bots/Requests.
• Approved bot accounts that are temporarily malfunctioning. This is to prevent additional damage until the bot-owner can address the problem.
• Inappropriate usernames.
• Evasion of blocks. An administrator may reset the block of a user who intentionally evades a block (and revert their contributions), and may extend the duration of the block if the user engages in further blockable behaviour while evading the block. User accounts or IP addresses used to evade a block may and should also be blocked.
• Abusing multiple accounts to mislead, deceive, disrupt, distort consensus or to evade blocks or other sanctions. Secondary accounts are typically blocked indefinitely. The primary account may or may not be subject to new or extended blocks depending on the circumstances.
• Open or anonymizing proxies are typically blocked upon detection in accordance withWikimedia-wide policy. The normal duration of such blocks is one year.

Blocked users areinformed that they mayrequest unblocking. They may do this by adding{{unblock|reason for the request}} to theirown user talk page. Alternatively, they may request unblocking with an appropriate reason viae-mail to the blocking administrator or another administrator.

Anappropriate reason will almost always include one of the following:

• Anacknowledgement that the block was appropriate and acredible promise that the behaviour that led to the block will not be repeated
• An explanation of why the block isnot appropriate based on this and other relevant policies and guidelines or islikely to be a mistake or an unintended side effect

An unblock request may begranted ordeclined. Before granting a request to lift a block placed by another administrator, the reviewing administrator shouldconsult with the blocking administrator, except in obvious, uncontroversial cases.Requests made on user talk pages may only be declined by anuninvolved administrator.

Making repeated unblocking requests without appropriate reasons may be considered abusive. As noted above, users who have abused or are likely to abuse the ability to edit their own user talk page and/or send e-mail in this or any other way may have either or both of these privileges revoked, which also prevents these privileges from being used for unblocking requests.

• Global locks,global blocks, andglobal bans: similar concepts spanning all Wikimedia projects