Guide to appealing blocks

This is a guide to making un(b)lock requests. Users may be blocked or locked from editing by administrators or stewards to prevent damage or disruption to any Wikimedia project. Blocks are lifted if they are not (or no longer) necessary to prevent such damage or disruption.

You, as a blocked or locked editor, are responsible for convincing administrators or stewards:

• that the (b)lock is no longer necessary because you understand what you are blocked for, you will not do it again, and you will make productive contributions instead; or:
• that the (b)lock was not necessary to prevent damage or disruption (i.e., that the block violates specific policies); or:
• that your conduct (under any account or IP address) is not connected in any way with the (b)lock (this can happen if a (b)lock is aimed at resolving a separate situation and you are unintentionally blocked as a result because you use the same IP range).

It also helps to clearly state your reasons for requesting an unblock because:

• If the background or reason isn't clear, your request may be declined out of hand.
• In complicated situations, the reviewing steward may not read your whole appeal message and all of your contributions. Relevant information not in your unblock request may be overlooked.
• If you make repeated invalid or offensive unblock requests, your further messages received by stewards will be marked as spam or your UTRS access will be banned, whether temporarily or indefinitely, which make it even more difficult to request unblocking.

To make an unblock request, compose an message to Steward requests/Global, stewardswikimediaorg or UTRS. If you have trouble writing your un(b)lock request, you may want to use the Stewards Wizard.

Before you request unblock

It's important that you understand the reasons why the administrator or steward blocked you before starting an unblock request. A block or lock is not intended as punishment; it's meant to prevent you from making disruptive edits, either in good faith or as vandalism.

Don't ask questions within your unblock request; that's reserved to explain why you will not be a problem to any project, not to request clarifications about policy. Before requesting to be unblocked, you can ask the stewards that blocked you any clarification about their actions, and they're expected to answer them, though first you have to read the policies they have linked as the reason for the block.

What happens when you request unblock

It may help with your unblock request if you understand how they are reviewed, and by whom.

• When you post the unblock request, it is manually and thoroughly reviewed by stewards.
• Stewards and administrators are volunteers. Be patient. Any review is carried out by an stewards other than the one who blocked you.
• An administrator or steward reviewing your request looks at the reasons given for the block, and your unblock request, in light of relevant policies. The aim in each case is to reduce disruption, damage, and similar issues from affecting any Wikimedia project.

Special situations

Users globally banned by the community

In serious situations, a community global ban may not be usually appealable.

Compromised accounts

Sometimes stewards lock an account as compromised. This happens most often when CheckUsers and stewards have proof that the person who created the account has lost access to it, and it is now controlled by another person. If your account was blocked specifically as a "compromised account", you should contact a CheckUser or steward, who can hopefully verify that you are now back in control. You can also ask a Wikimedian who has met you in person to vouch for you, or you could use a previously disclosed {{committed identity}}. If none of these options are available, the account might simply be unrecoverable because we have no way of knowing who is in control of it. Please contact cawikimedia.org if you cannot log in as a result of compromise.