Global locks

Global locks Global locks are technical measures employed against user accounts to prevent them from logging in.

This page deals with technical restrictions placed on accounts. For restrictions placed on IP addresses or IP ranges, please see Global blocks.

Global locks are technical measures Stewards, Global Sysops, and Trust and Safety can use to prevent an account from logging into any wiki on Miraheze, thus completely disabling access to the account. These differ from global blocks which only affect IP addresses, ranges, or users using these affected ranges/addresses and which can have an expiry time defined. All global locks are logged here on Miraheze Meta at Special:Log/globalauth.

Unlike a local block where users are prevented from editing a particular wiki and may have limited access (including editing their talk page or emailing users if local administrators allow them to), global locks log users out of their account and prevent them from being able to log in. Global locks are usually applied to vandalism-only accounts, spam-only accounts, compromised accounts, or highly disruptive accounts that have been spotted abusing multiple wikis. Accounts that have been globally locked can also be configured to have their usernames hidden on all logs; this is used for disruptive or inappropriate names. Additional uses include Trust and Safety actions (which may include anonymizing/hiding a username), global ban enforcement and self-requested locks.

To request a global lock, please use the Stewards' noticeboard. All evidence that entails a lock should be provided. In cases of cross-wiki vandalism, spam or other disruptions, you can also report it on the Counter Vandalism Team IRC or Discord channel to have either a Global Sysop or Steward lock the account. If you are reporting an underage user, do not do this - instead, report including all evidence directly to tsmiraheze.org.

To appeal a global lock, please email stewardsmiraheze.org. Please make sure to include any relevant information in your appeal, including the account being appealed, any other accounts they should know about, and reasoning for the lock to be lifted.

See also

• Global blocks which primarily affect IP addresses and range but can also affect logged in users; doesn't lock them out.
• Global locks on Wikimedia Meta-Wiki.