UDWiki:Administration/Policy Discussion/Vexatious

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Hey folks. I figured I might as well give this a spin, though its quite possible I'm talking out of my ass. :) Gimmie a yell on the talk page if you think so. Better to speak up than say nothin', eh?


It's not uncommon for people to use the very legal/governing system designed to protect others against itself; To rise up in the name of all that is good and pure just to generally harass or overpower someone.


In the real world, this is known as a vexatious litigation. It's an abuse of process, essentially a civil crime using the legal systems against another as a physical weapon.


And if we're not dealing with this already, we'll have to deal with it soon enough, I'm afraid. Frequently our deletion system and others are being harrassed by specific users and groups, who claim to have our self interests in mind or simply wish to punish those whom they claim to be unjust. I don't CURRENTLY belive we have a set-in-stone guideline for how to deal with it; But please, tell me otherwise in the talk if you believe we do.


Now, in the world of lawyers? Barratry and malicious prosecution can lead to disbarment. Now, it'd be nice if we could do a similar system, simply keeping people from using/seeing the civil services pages for a set period of time (depending on # of warnings) if they're found guilt of vexatious litigation.


But I honestly don't know that its possible for us to DO that, rather than simply resort to banning in general. (Again, inform me if that IS indeed possible.)


In replacement of that, I'd like to see is a policy similiar to our Vandalism policy, though focused upon what I suppose we'd call "Vexatious Litigators" for lack of a better term. Here's how I see it currently looking like:


What is Vexatious Litigation?

On this wiki, we define vexatious and frivolous litigation as "utilizing the wiki moderation services, regardless of its merits, solely to harass or subdue an adversary."

This, while quite broad and useful, does lead to interpretation. We make the following notes on what isn't vexatious litigation:

  • A unwanted (by either an individual or the community) complaint on any user/page/uploaded content.
  • A complaint arising from a misunderstanding.
  • A complaint that makes a logicaly valid, unbiased and objective claim that you don't agree with.

The moderation services in question with such forms of vexatious litigation are (but should not be considered limited to):

UDWiki:Moderation/Misconduct seems to be the wisest place for such claims of users commiting vexatious litigation to take place and be judged upon. It is considered extremely poor form to automatically assume that a person's use of the moderation institutions against another user or user's creation is an act of vexatious litigation. However, should a user or group be brought to the attention of the moderators of being guilty of vexatious litigation, following a discussion of the case (perhaps both on Misconduct and as well as UDWiki:Moderation/Discussion), Moderators are expected to always look at the case in terms of both involved parties past behaviors, relations, and naturally the current litigation brought to charge.

Penalties for Vexatious Litigation

Should a specific user be found guilty of abusing the moderation services, they will be unable to use moderation services without prior permission from a moderator for a set period of time, depending on how many past offenses of this nature they have commited. What follows is a list of those time periods:


  • First offense: 24 hours
  • Second offense: 48 hours
  • Third offense: 1 week


If the user commits a fourth offense of this nature, they will instead be banned for one month. On the fifth, a year.


The idea here is not for punishment, but ideally rehabilitation and a change for the user in question to reconsider their position and method of dealing with their conflicts. It is an attempt to assist in the virtue of tact; It should not be interpreted as a gag-order upon the current legal system of our wiki.

Thanks for reading that. Keep in mind, I'm not:

  1. A lawyer.
  2. Omniscient.
  3. Infallible.

So please. Gimmie plenty of feedback on this, or if you even think it's currently (or ever) needed. I personally already see a few potential gaps and needed enhancements here, but thats why its on the discussion section.

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