Wikipedia:Blocked external links/Administrator instructions

This page explains how administrators should handle requests at Blocked external links.

Requests to block a site

 * 1) Before blocking the site:
 * 2) Confirm whether the site has any relevance or use to the project.
 * 3) Check whether there have been previous warnings/blocks for linking to the site. If it is principally new users who add the links and/or genuine users are likely to have reasonable justification for adding them, using XLinkBot might be better.
 * 4) Use Special:Linksearch to find all links to the site you are going to blacklist and remove them. This is important because if a user edits the page after you have performed the blacklisting, he won't be able to save it without removing the link, and it may not be obvious which link is triggering the filter.
 * 5) Once you have ascertained that the request is warranted:
 * 6) Check that the site isn't already blacklisted using this tool, or some other method.
 * 7) Add the site in regular expression form to MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist at the end.
 * 8) *You need to put \b at the start and end of the URL
 * 9) *Ensure you place \ before all .s or other characters with special meaning in regexps; you don't need to place \ before /
 * 10) Mark the request done
 * 11) Log the addition at the bottom of MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist/log, linking to the discussion (a template to do this will be available at the top of the request page after you mark it done).
 * 12) If you wish to keep any links to the site, you'll need to add them to the whitelist.

Requests to unblock a site

 * 1) First, search for the site in the list using this tool or some other method. If the site is in the meta blacklist then you can't remove it here; such requests should be closed and tagged defermetablack.
 * 2) Investigate why the site was blacklisted to begin with. This will almost always be linked from the search page in step 1.
 * 3) Decide whether removing the site from the blacklist is warranted. Some factors to consider:
 * 4) *The circumstances of the blacklisting
 * 5) *The experience of the editor requesting removal from the blacklist (be wary of requests from IPs or from new accounts)
 * 6) *Whether it would be more appropriate to whitelist one or a few links from the site instead
 * 7) *Feel free to ask further questions if insufficient information has been provided, including "how would it benefit Wikipedia to permit these links?"
 * 8) If you have determined that the site should be delisted from the blacklist, find the relevant entry from MediaWiki:Spam-blacklist and delete it.
 * 9) Mark the request with an appropriate indicator such as done, not done, declined, denied, etc.

Requests to whitelist certain links

 * 1) In the event that a whitelisting request contains an entire site, then please either move it to the removal request page or, as appropriate, ask the lister to specify which particular pages he wishes to have whitelisted.
 * 2) Investigate why the site was blacklisted. You can use this tool which will usually bring up the log entry.
 * 3) Decide whether permitting the particular page is compatible with policy, including WP:RS if applicable. You should also consider the experience of the editor requesting whitelisting, and may wish to ask the requester to gain support at WP:RSN or from a WikiProject.
 * 4) If you have determined that the whitelisting is appropriate:
 * 5) Add the site in regular expression form to the bottom of MediaWiki:Spam-whitelist.
 * 6) *You need to put \b at the start and end of the URL; you can leave out the http: part.
 * 7) *Ensure you place \ before all .s or other characters with special meaning in regexps; you don't need to place \ before /
 * 8) Mark the request done
 * 9) Log the addition at the bottom of MediaWiki talk:Spam-whitelist/log, linking to the discussion.

Archiving

 * 1) Every so often, archive the requests to the appropriate log pages.
 * 2) These will be created soon at Blocked external links/Logs/Additions, Blocked external links/Logs/Removals, and Blocked external links/Logs/Whitelistings.