[WikiEN-l] Policy inquiry - slack for blocked users venting on their talk page

[Carcharoth]

On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 3:34 AM, Fred Bauder<fredbaud at fairpoint.net> wrote:
>> I had thought we'd formally policyized the "please leave blocked users
>> alone on their talk page and don't block them if they vent about the
>> block (short of making threats against people, etc)", but I can't find
>> anything on-wiki that has it in writing.
>>
>> I know I've had discussions with people about it before and there was
>> a general admins consensus that it was a good thing - but it does not
>> appear to be written down in policy, guideline, or an Arbcom decision
>> I can find.
>>
>> Am I missing something, or did we really never write it down?
>>
>> If we did not, we probably should rectify that, and I'll SOFIXIT - but
>> I wanted to ping out to other experienced people first to see if
>> anyone could remember where it might be written that I just haven't
>> found yet.
>>
>> Thanks!
>
> It is written:
>
>  Allow this user to edit own talk page while blocked. (Disable only for
> users known to abuse own talk page.)
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Block/
>
> and at
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Blocking_policy#Setting_block_options
>
> Allow this user to edit own talk page while blocked if unchecked will
> prevent the blocked user from editing their own talk page, including
> requesting unblock. This option should not be unchecked by default;
> editing of the user's talk page should only be disabled in the case of
> continued abuse of the talk page.

That covers protecting user talk pages (either directly or preventing
the editor themselves from editing it), but what about people ranting
on talk pages *after* their block has expired. That would be "reblocks
due to venting about just-expired block". That might be more tricky.

Carcharoth