CZ:Moderator Group

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Constables, you might find it handy to bookmark this page!

Welcome to your friendly local Constabulary!

Our constables are Citizendium's "community managers" or "moderators." They oversee adherence to basic policies, resolve behavioral — not editorial — disputes, and rein in troublemakers. Constables also review applications and create new accounts, and can place the "approved" template into articles at the request of an editor. They operate within a "separation of powers" and are held to a strict conflict of interest policy. All Citizendium constables hold at least a bachelor's degree and are at least 25 years old. For further information, see Constabulary Policy.

To "call a constable," please email constables@citizendium.org.

When to call a constable

Authors should understand the relative domains of authority of editors and constables: editors handle disputes about content, while constables handle disputes about behavior. Constables should not be asked to settle disputes that can be settled by a definitive answer to a content question; in that case, an editor should be consulted. Constables should be called when the dispute does not turn on a content question. For example:

• An author is straightforwardly ignoring decisions made by an editor.
• A contributor is acting abusively in the discussion page.
• A contributor refuses to engage in any discussion about a disputed edit.
• A contributor is very obviously ignoring project rules, for example, someone simply deletes without explanation all information about a view with which he disagrees.
• Someone claiming to be an editor is very obviously not entitled to do so, for example, because the user page has no, nonsensical, or irrelevant links to evidence of qualification.

For constables: getting started

For new constables there are two places of interest: this page and "For reference". If you haven't already bumped into the "For reference", ask one of the other constables about it.

Some handy links for constables

Constables, if a particular link or two is useful to you but not included, please add.

General

• Constabulary Home
• Constabulary Policy
• List of current constables (needs updating)
• Automatic list of all constables
  • Note: Some of these users may be inactive. Greg Sabino Mullane, Jason Potkanski, Zach Pruckowski, Aaron Schulz, and Chris Day have "sysop" rights for developer purposes. They are not constables and cannot respond to inquiries.
• MediaWiki how-to guide - note, Wikipedia's policy greatly differs from ours, but some of their technical how-tos are applicable.
• Professionalism

New applicants

• Application Review Procedure
• Create an account
• User creation log
• User list
• Log in
• Defunct: New Account Review Procedure
• CZ:How did you hear about CZ?

Blocking

• Constabulary Blocking Procedures
• Special:Blockip

Deletion

• Article Deletion Policy
• Special:Log/delete
• Category:Speedy Deletion Requests
• Special:Undelete

Media

• Category:All media
• Help:Images#Copyrights - Basic media policy and help
• Category:License_tags - The growing list of licensing/copyright tags.
• {{mediaflag}} - For use by contributors to flag media for review by a constable.
  • Category:Flagged media - The place to monitor contributor-flagged media.
• Special:Newimages - To monitor newly uploaded images.
• MediaWiki:Uploadtext - - Place to edit the text appearing at the top of Special:Upload.
• MediaWiki:Licenses - Place to edits the available licensing options in the drop-down box at Special:Upload.

Misc

• Czinternal-constable mailing list
• CZ:Leaving the project - Regarding people who are leaving/have left the project
• Special:BrokenRedirects
• Special:CheckUser
• Special:Ipblocklist
• Special:Log
• Special:Unwatchedpages
• How to fix cut-and-paste moves
• System messages

Vandalism

• Anti-vandalism procedures
• Anti-vandalism links

A guide to constable procedures

Constables, the following is the beginnings of a guide on how to do your job. Please help clarify and expand it as needed.

The constables mailbox and list

Constables require access to the constables@citizendium.org mailbox to perform their duties. To access it, request instructions from another constable.

We would like to keep it's "Inbox" emptied — have a short turnaround time for all messages, as far as possible. Most of the sub-folders should be self-explanatory. Do look in and read the contents of "For our reference".

Constables also need to to be subscribed to an internal-only list for constables only. As soon as you became a constable, Stephen Ewen (at present) should have subscribed you. Contact him if not.

Responding to rude remarks, complaints, and flamebait placed on the wiki

Rude remarks shouldn't be tolerated; see Professionalism. If a paragraph of text contains personal attacks or other abusive language, constables should replace the whole paragraph (or a series of thus problematic paragraphs) with the {{civil}} template, which generates this message:

Text here was removed by the Constabulary on grounds of civility. (The author may replace this template with an edited version of the original remarks.)

Complaints by contributors about other contributors — authors, editors, and constables — should be made to constables@citizendium.org. Accordingly, such complaints are not permitted on the wiki. If a paragraph of text contains any such complaint, constables should replace the whole paragraph with the {{nocomplaints}} template, which generates this message:

A comment here was deleted by The Constabulary on grounds of making complaints about fellow Citizens. If you have a complaint about the behavior of another Citizen, e-mail constables@citizendium.org. It is contrary to Citizendium policy to air your complaints on the wiki. See also CZ:Professionalism.

Making repeated complaints about other users on the wiki can, after [how many?] warnings, lead to a user's at least temporary removal from the project. Abuse is dealt with much more strictly; see Constabulary Blocking Procedures and We aren't Wikipedia.

Needlessly inflammatory remarks are to be deleted as well. The Constabulary considers remarks needlessly inflammatory if any reasonable person should know that the remarks might provoke an acrimonious and unhelpful (e.g., off-topic) controversy--in other words, a pointless "flame war." Again, if a paragraph of text contains any such remarks, constables should replace the whole paragraph with the {{inflammatory}} template, which reads:

Text here was removed by the Constabulary on grounds that it is needlessly inflammatory. (The author may replace this template with an edited version of the original remarks.)

In general, but especially for minor issues, constables should engage people privately (aka off-wiki) when possible. If urgency is an issue, consider leaving a note on the user's talk page to inform them of your arriving email. To email any user, regardless of whether they have enabled "E-mail this user", go to that user's user page, then go to "Block user" (actually blocking requires a second step). Their email address will appear next to their name.

But which template to use?

1. If a comment contains personal abuse, use {{civil}}.
2. If a comment does not contain personal abuse, but contains complaints about another person, then use {{nocomplaints}}.
3. If a comment contains neither abuse nor complaints, but is needlessly inflammatory, then use {{inflammatory}}.

In short, use exactly one of these templates as applicable in exactly this order: {{civil}}, {{nocomplaints}}, {{inflammatory}}.

Page deletion

To draft

For now, see Category:Speedy Deletion Requests and CZ:Article Deletion Policy.

Anti-vandalism procedures

See Anti-vandalism procedures.

The {{Approved}} template

See Approval Process with particular attention to this section.

All other Constabulary templates

Constables, you can discuss creating new templates as the need arises.

Professionalism Policy

• {{civil}}
• {{nocomplaints}}
• {{inflammatory}}

Neologisms/Acronyms

• {{Acronym}}
  • Can be used with these switches:
    • |NPOV = "unbiased" or "neutral"
    • |OP = original poster
    • |OR = original research
    • |POV = "biased"
    • |BTW = by the way

Account creation

• {{awelcome}}
• {{ewelcome}}

• {{workgroup introduction}}

Other sysops on-wiki

People involved with development at Citizendium may have sysop powers but are not constables. Any sysop may use their powers to counter vandalism, however.