Policy:Office actions

This page is an official policy on the English Wikipedia. It was put forth by Jimbo Wales as a necessary policy for the running of Wikipedia at the Foundation level. If you wish to propose changes, please talk to him.

WP:OFFICE is an official policy promulgation by Jimbo Wales which allows Danny Wool (longtime Wikipedian, English Wikipedia admin, Steward, and Foundation employee) to temporarily protect or modify an article. Such actions are performed for a variety of issues, including prevention of potential legal problems, removal of libel, and responding to verifiability issues and other formal complaints. Danny has stated he'll use a separate account, Template:Admin, when acting in his offical capacity.

Undoing a WP:OFFICE action will almost always result in an instant block and probably desysoping. If in doubt as to whether an action of Danny's falls under WP:OFFICE, check first, preferably by e-mail; do not undo his actions.

Original message

Please note that this is official policy, and reverting a WP:OFFICE may be grounds for blocking. I do not recommend that admins block for this, I'm just saying... don't revert a WP:OFFICE edit unless and until you've asked and know what you are doing. There may at times be legal reasons for this.

The Wikimedia Foundation receives an increasingly large number of phone calls and emails from people who are upset about various things on the site. Sometimes these complaints are valid; more often they are not. However, in most cases, even with the invalid complaints, there is a short-term action which can and should be taken as a courtesy in order to soothe feelings and build a better encyclopedia in the long run.

A typical example: someone creates a vanity bio in Wikipedia, which is quickly nominated for deletion. The comments which ensue, even when they are completely courteous, can hurt the feelings of the person being discussed. The sort of person who is vain enough to create an autobiography in Wikipedia is also the sort of person who doesn't take well to being described as 'non-notable'.

When such people call the office, it can be the best approach all around for us to simply speedy the article, blank the deletion discussion, and all get on with our lives. This quick action is in no way meant to override or replace the process of community consensus. There is still plenty of time, and there are still plenty of places, for the community to discuss and replace articles in due course.

I have created this page for Danny to use to signify why he is deleting or blanking something per my authorization. This does not signify any authoritarian top-down action without approval, but rather signifies a temporary action to allow us to be kind while we sort out the encyclopedic way forward.

If this works out, I may authorize other people to use it as well (people handling OTRS email queues, people on the legal team, etc.)--Jimbo Wales 21:43, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Current pages under protection

The following pages are currently under OFFICE protection

• NewsMax.com
• Christopher Ruddy

All others may be unprotected.

Current pages under semi-protection

When an article previously closed to editors under OFFICE protection is conditionally re-opened to editing in order to meet standard Wikipedia guidelines on NPOV and attribution the template {{Reset}} will be placed on the interim article and the talk page will be blanked. This does not remove the status of OFFICE protection from the page and the requirements set out in the header must be followed by all subsequent editors.

Please note that this is official policy, and reverting a WP:OFFICE may be grounds for blocking.

The following pages are currently under OFFICE protection but conditionally open to editors

• Christopher Ruddy
• NewsMax.com

See also

• Category:Office protected

External links

Mailing list messages

• [WikiEN-l] I am Danny
• [WikiEN-l] Phone calls
• [WikiEN-l] Apology