Wikipedia:General sanctions

General sanctions are a type of Wikipedia sanctions that apply to all editors working in a particular topic area. These contrast with editing restrictions, also called "personal sanctions", which apply only to individual editors. General sanctions are measures used by the community or the Arbitration Committee ("ArbCom") to improve the editing atmosphere of an article or topic area. They empower administrators to sanction editors who are not complying with general behavioral or editorial guidelines and policies.

Contentious topics
The contentious topics (formerly called Discretionary Sanctions) procedure is intended to provide administrators with a rapid means to intervene in topic areas that have proved problematic. The goal is to reduce and prevent future disruption to the project. Use of such tools can be authorized by the Arbitration Committee, usually as part of an arbitration case. In addition, community discussions can authorize sanctions based on procedures established by the Arbitration Committee.

In areas which have been designated a contentious topic, any editor may alert another editor that a topic has been designated as a contentious topic. If this is first alert the editor has received for any contentious topic you must use Contentious topics/alert/first, otherwise you can use Contentious topics/alert. Contentious topic restrictions may not be imposed on an editor unless they were aware that a topic has been designated a contentious topic. Any "aware" editor who repeatedly or seriously fails to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standard of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be restricted "on the spot" by any uninvolved administrator or through a formal request at the arbitration enforcement noticeboard ("AE"). Possible restrictions include, but aren't limited to, blocks of up to one year, article or topic bans, and revert restrictions. For specific pages, uninvolved administrators may also impose preventative restrictions such as page protection and revert restrictions.

Community-authorised discretionary sanctions
Some community sanctions are based on Discretionary Sanctions which is the predecessor to contentious topics. There are some exceptions to the Arbitration Committee discretionary sanctions procedure that apply:
 * Conduct which is below the required standard or breaches of page or individual restrictions are reported to the administrators' noticeboard for incidents and not the arbitration enforcement noticeboard (AE).
 * Appeals are made to the administrators' noticeboard and not the arbitration enforcement noticeboard (AE) or to the Arbitration Committee (but case requests can still be filed).
 * Sanctions are logged on a page specific to the topic area (for example, General sanctions/South Asian social groups).
 * Templates used to alert and notify editors of discretionary sanctions are specific to community sanctions (see Template:Gs for details).
 * Administrators cannot use the community sanctions to delete pages.

Page restrictions
Pages may be subject to restrictions that limit the types of edits that may be made. Such restrictions can be added as a topic-wide restriction, and can also be applied as a discretionary sanction on a particular page. Applicable page restrictions should be clearly communicated to editors using an editnotice and a talk notice. The most common restriction is the one-revert rule ("1RR").

Extended confirmed restriction
The extended confirmed restriction (previously called the "500/30 rule") limits editing in a specific topic area to only those accounts that have been extended confirmed. A standard procedure for this type of general sanction was adopted by the Arbitration Committee on 20 September 2021.

Arbitration Committee sanctions
The Arbitration Committee may authorize general sanctions for particular pages or subject areas (known as contentious topics), usually following an arbitration case. Administrators employing sanctions must issue appropriate notifications, and log all sanctions imposed, as specified in each case. The Arbitration Committee may revoke these sanctions by passing a "motion in a prior case". Editors wishing to report possible violations of Arbitration Committee sanctions should do so at Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement.

Community sanctions
The community may also impose general sanctions on all editors working in a particular area by consensus at the village pump for proposals (VPR), following a notice at the administrators' noticeboard (AN). While community sanctions are not bound by Arbitration Committee procedures and guidelines, they are often based on them. More specifically, multiple community sanctions issued before 2023 are based on the Arbitration Committee discretionary sanctions procedure which was replaced in December 2022 by contentious topics and that newer procedure may be the model for future community sanctions. Deviations from or additions to these standards typically requires community consensus, unless purely clerical in nature. Requests for amendments, clarification, or revocation (if sanctions are no longer required) should also be discussed at VPR, following a notice at AN.

Templates
Use the following templates for these sanctions. Case-specific templates can be found at Category:Standardised_Wikipedia_arbitration_enforcement_templates.
 * Article talk page notice:
 * First notification for user talk page:
 * Subsequent notifications for user talk page:
 * Sanction for user talk page (to actually impose the sanction):
 * For block notices on user talk page: }

Decisions

 * Appropriate procedures described at Contentious topics

General sanctions
This section is transcluded from General sanctions.

Templates
Use the following templates for enforcing community-issued sanctions. Case-specific templates can be found at Category:Wikipedia community-authorised general sanctions templates.
 * Article talk page notice:
 * Notification for user talk page:
 * Sanction for user talk page (to actually impose the sanction):
 * For block notices on user talk page:

Article probation
Article probation is now considered obsolete. When it was in use, article probation involved placing certain articles under increased scrutiny by administrators. Editors who made disruptive edits to articles that had been placed on probation could be banned from further editing of such articles, as well as related articles and/or project pages. Anyone editing an article on probation was intended to be especially mindful of content policies, such as neutral point-of-view, and interaction policies, such as WP:CIVIL, WP:NPA, WP:3RR, and WP:POINT. By 2018 article probation had been superseded by the other "general sanctions" described on this page.