Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention/Instructions

Guidance for all editors and administrators:

Blatant and serious violations of name policy ONLY

Usernames that are not blatantly obvious, or are minor violations of policy should not be immediately reported or blocked. General name policy violations should first be discussed on their talk page, as they may not be familiar with the policy. The {{subst:UsernameConcern}} template can be used to accomplish this first attempt at dialogue. Generally, they should be told about the concerns and encouraged to create a new account with a more appropriate name. Any listing for that name on the UAA main page should be moved to the holding pen while the concerns are being discussed. If discussion proves unsuccessful, i.e. they refuse to change their name or they ignore the concern and continue to edit, then you may take the name to request for comment on usernames (RFCN). Please remove the name from the holding pen should you decide to take it to RFCN.

Note that inappropriate usernames do not need to be reported or blocked if the user has made no contributions or hasn't edited in months. In cases where there is no evidence that an account was created in bad faith, administrators are expected to explain the exact reason why they have blocked the user in either the block log or in a message on the editor's talk page, pointing to the precise reason from the username policy.

Recently editing accounts ONLY

Do not report a username which has not made recent edits (within the last 2-3 weeks at the outside). Accounts that haven't edited in 3 weeks or more should not be reported.

Handling of possible name policy violations, but with another policy concern

Unambiguous use of a name or URL of a company, group or product as a username is generally not permitted, and users who adopt such a username may be blocked if their editing behavior appears to be promotional. However, users who adopt such usernames but who are not editing problematically should not be summarily blocked if their edits are otherwise constructive; instead, they should be gently but firmly encouraged to change their username.

Names that are questionably in violation of the username policy operated by users who are spamming or vandalising should be reported to the Administrator intervention against vandalism noticeboard to be blocked for vandalism or spam. If a name appears to be editing in violation of the conflict of interest policy, then consider placing the {{subst:Uw-coi}} template on their talk page and making a report at the Conflict of Interest noticeboard. If the questionable username is an additional concern along with the conflict of interest concern, then consider placing the {{subst:uw-coi-username}} template on their talk page. If they refuse to change the name or ignore the name concern and continue to edit, then you may take their name to request for comment on usernames for community discussion.

Administrator specific instructions:

• Please familiarize yourself with the general guidance noted above.
• Usernames that are clearly unacceptable for use on Wikipedia, but have no obvious disruptive editing may be blocked indefinitely, however you should allow the blocked user to create a new username. To do this, un-tick both the "Prevent account creation" and the "Autoblock any IP addresses used" boxes in the block form. This is usually called a 'soft block'.
• Disruptive usernames that have clearly been created in bad faith should also be blocked indefinitely, but in such cases it is usually appropriate to block anonymous editing and prevent further account creation. This is done by leaving both the "Prevent account creation" and the "Autoblock any IP addresses used" boxes ticked. The autoblock will typically prevent account creation and anonymous editing for 24 hours. This is usually called a 'hard block'.
• As with any block, you should give the reasoning for the block in the block log, and also let the user know the reasoning on their talk page. You may use one of the templates supplied below to do this.
• When declining to block a reported name, be sure to indicate your reason for declining the request in your edit summary. You may wish to give notification of this on their talk page using the {{subst:uw-uaa}}.
• Take particular care with bot-reported usernames. It is up to you to determine whether the name is an actual violation, and whether the user needs to be warned or blocked. In some cases, there may be a well-defined word/name to add to User:HBC NameWatcherBot/Whitelist.
• If the HBC AIV helperbots do not appear to be removing blocked users, please notify the bot operators and they will take a look at the problem. They will not necessarily see comments in edit summaries, so please leave notes on their talk page(s) as appropriate. You may also wish to manually remove old entries in such a case.

Common username related templates:

Template	Purpose
{{subst:uw-ublock}}	Standard 'soft block' template
{{subst:uw-uhblock}}	For blatant bad faith names (hard)
{{subst:uw-softerblock}}	For most promotional names (soft)
{{subst:uw-spamublock}}	For promotional names with bad faith edits, e.g. spamming (hard)
{{subst:uw-botublock}}	For unapproved bot names (soft)
{{subst:uw-vaublock}}	Vandalism-only accounts that are also blatant username policy violations (hard)
{{subst:uw-uaa}}	Reporting of username to WP:UAA not accepted.
{{subst:uw-username}}	Default username concern template
{{subst:uw-coi-username}}	For both username and conflict on interest concerns

Links

• Username policy guidance on dealing with inappropriate usernames
• Request for comments on usernames
• Conflict of interest noticeboard