If you're seeing this article, you're either browsing the Administrivia index or you got suspended from one or more site activities and clicked on the link in the suspension message
. If you clicked on a suspension message, thank you for doing so! This is the first step in getting your suspension resolved.
Why was I suspended?
Someone noticed that you were breaking the rules. You probably got a direct message about it, but not always. Suspensions (and forum thumps) are how we formally issue warnings. Somehow you caused a problem that needs to be fixed, and the moderation is going to explain what the problem is, how to avoid it, and what is needed to fix it. In our experience, tropers don't always respond to PMs, and we need the thing you're doing to stop so that other people don't have to spend as much time fixing it.
Just so we're absolutely clear: A suspension doesn't mean, "We don't like you", it means, "Come talk to us."
Common suspension reasons on the wiki:
- Rudeness in edit reasons, discussion threads, or even in the articles themselves
- Too many Notifiers
- Edit Wars
- Disregarding article comments (including moderator instructions and Image Pickin' approvals)
- Spamming, blanking, vandalizing, or bowdlerizing articles
- Running any text-substitution plugins in your browser. These modify the text of articles that you edit and are considered vandalism.
- Bringing an outside agenda to the wiki or being a pain in the neck over a particular topic
- Plagiarism, copyright violations, posting of illegal or offensive content
- Intentionally adding false information.
Common suspension reasons on Trope Launch Pad:
- Rudeness in the draft or arguing
- Egregiously bad grammar or writing style or persistent misuse of formatting
- Launching or discarding a trope against consensus
- "Rogue launching": launching (or discarding) a trope when you have not participated in its development
- Taking over someone else's proposed trope when it is not Up for Grabs
- Persistent failure to understand what is a trope and what is not a trope
Common suspension reasons on the forums:
- Extreme or persistent rudeness
- Accumulating a large number of thumps, to the point where we believe that you aren't getting the message
- Spamming, trolling, or otherwise deliberately disrupting the forums
- Individual subforums may have their own rules; please see the respective pinned rules threads and/or the Forum Herald message that you receive when making your first post.
Common suspension reasons in other areas of the site, or in general:
- Rudeness, such as personal attacks or any form of hate speech
- Copy-pasting reviews from other sites, even if you wrote them
- Writing reviews that constitute personal attacks on any real person or entity
How long does a suspension last?
Suspensions never have a fixed length of time unless you have already come to discuss the situation with the moderation. They stay until you've convinced the moderation team that the problem which caused the suspension will not reoccur. While "cooldown" periods may be issued during discussion, the discussion itself can take anywhere between a few days to a few hours, depending on how aware you already are about the site rules.
How do I appeal?
Appealing the suspension is as easy as posting in this forum thread. Go the last page, click "Add a post" note , and type in your request. We ask that you remain polite. We'll be more inclined to treat you favorably if you show that you're willing to work with us. We aren't going to discuss your suspension over private messages (our typical response is to say "post in the thread"); we want to make sure we handle each case with the diligence that it deserves and part of that is discussing it publicly.
While you wait for a response, you may wish to review Welcome to TV Tropes, TV Tropes Customs, TLP Guidelines, and the forum rules. If we don't reply immediately, that's normal; the moderation team is made up of busy people with lives outside of this website. However, if your last post hasn't been answered within a couple of days, it's fine to ask again.
If you are asked to use the Get Help with English thread or if we quiz you on areas relevant to your ban, please do your own work. Attempting to ask a third party for help would only worsen your ban.
PS: If your appeal is also your first post in the Frequently Asked Questions forum, you'll automatically receive a welcome message from its forum herald, Septimus Heap. While he'll gladly answer questions, please post any appeals or "Why was I suspended?" questions in the thread and not over Private Messages.
I can't appeal in the thread!
If you receive the message "Your account was permanently banned from all activities", we have issued something that we (internally) call a "bounce". It means that you are not allowed to participate further on the site and have therefore lost all privileges. Other, more narrow suspensions, may also become permanent after discussion in the aforementioned suspensions thread.
- Ban evasion (see below)
- Posting spam (unsolicited commercial advertisements)
- Significant and/or obviously intentional vandalism
- Intentional hate speech or blatantly illegal content
- Repeated suspensions for the same or similar behavior
- Continuously failing to respond to moderators in the Edit Banned topic
You have a last resort, even if you cannot post in the appeals thread. Use our contact form and make a polite case for your appeal. Bear in mind that the resulting decision will be final.
In addition, if you decide to delete your account while banned or if you have been reported for a bannable offense, it will be treated as a self-inflicted permanent ban. Moderators can still see records for deleted accounts and IP addresses assigned to them, so don't think of it as a workaround to evade your ban.
Ban evasion
It's very simple. If you make a new account to get around a suspension, you will be permanently banned, both on the new account and any other accounts you may have. This is not negotiable. As noted above, deleting your account won't let you ban evade.
Asking another troper that you know to edit the wiki or post on your behalf may get that person banned as well. There are two exceptions:
- Delivering an appeal, but bear in mind that you should be doing it yourself via the Edit Banned thread.
- If you have been told to use the Get Help with English Here or Is this an example? topics as a condition of getting your suspension released, other tropers may post examples on your behalf once they've been vetted in those topics.
Proxies, VPNs, anonymizers, disposable mailhosts
You must use a traceable IP and mailhost when registering an account. Older accounts may have their status "grandfathered in", but new accounts made using an anonymizing proxy, virtual private network, or "disposable" address while registering may be rejected, or banned if any of these are detected after the fact. Please allow a day or two for our systems to process the application. If your account was denied, you may still register another account, but we reiterate the need to use a traceable IP and mailhost. TV Tropes does not sell your email address or IP information. See Get Known for our complete registration policy.Thanks for your understanding.
