Wikipedia:Guide to appealing blocks
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
This is a list of common reasons why your request to be unblocked was denied. If you repeatedly make invalid unblock requests, your talk page may be protected from editing. Additional guidance can be found at Wikipedia:Appealing a block.
Bad reason
As a user requesting to be unblocked, it is your responsability to explain clearly and briefly, in easily readable English, why your block violated Wikipedia's blocking policy. Specifically:
- Be brief. Administrators are volunteers and will often decline to read overly long requests.
- Stay calm. Profanities, ramblings, ALL CAPS SCREAMING and the like will lead to your unblock request being declined.
- State what is wrong about your block. It is not sufficient to assert that the block was "wrong" or "unfair". You must explain why it was wrong in such a manner as to violate our blocking policy.
- Address the block reason. Your block log will contain the reason why you are blocked, such as engaging in vandalism or violating the three revert rule. You must explain why this is not the case.
- Give evidence. If you state that you did or did not do something, where possible, provide a link in the form of a differential edit.
Others
If you are blocked, it is because of your conduct and not of that of others. Accordingly:
- Do not attack or accuse other editors, such as those you may have been in a conflict with, or the blocking administrator. If they have done something wrong prior to your block, they may be blocked in turn, but that does not matter in your unblock request. The only thing that needs to be addressed is why your block violates our blocking policy.
- Do not excuse your misconduct with that of others. Two wrongs do not make a right. It is not an adequate unblock request to demand that another user should also be blocked.
Agree to behave
If you are blocked for something you did wrong, and especially if you are blocked for a long time, you are more likely to be unblocked if you:
- Admit to it. All your contributions to Wikipedia are logged. There is no point in denying something that you did do, because it can and will be checked up.
- Make people trust you again. Promise, credibly, that you will stop doing whatever got you blocked.
- Tell us why you are here. Say how you intend to help contribute to the encyclopedia after you are unblocked. See here for some ideas about what you could do.
