Forum:Method of handling expired blocks

At the moment, we have a procedure in place for notifying someone that they have been blocked. We do not have a method for the removal of those notification. In most cases, the people that have been temporarily blocked never return after they cause problems, but a few have. Some to stir up more trouble, and some make good edits from that point forward.

This forum is to discuss ways to handle keeping a past block on record. — RRabbit42 ( leave a message ) 22:11, May 1, 2010 (UTC)

Modifying block notices
When a block is issued, in most cases either the Blocked or the Block reason template is placed on the user's Talk page. If the block was for spam, this may not be done because the spammers wouldn't bother reading it or even care that they've been blocked.

Both templates register the page in the blocked users category. They have been updated so that we can now put a start or end date for the block in the notification. Both the category and other changes recently to the templates will help us track blocks that are active and have expired.

Once a block has expired, we should remove the template from the page. The reason for this is if the user comes back to the page, all they may see is "you're blocked" without reading further to learn that it is no longer in effect. They might then not ever return to make good contributions.

However, we don't want to completely eliminate the notice. The information needs to be there, but in a different form. What we need is some kind of simpler statement, one that doesn't blare out "you were blocked once" like the current templates do. Enter your ideas for this simpler stament here.

Simpler statement ideas

 * 1) Idea/suggestion

Discussion of the ideas

 * Note the idea number that you are discussing, such as "For idea #1, I think...".