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Even when blocked, you will usually still be able to edit your user talk page, as well as email administrators and other editors.

What does this mean?

As on many websites, Wikipedia administrators occasionally block accounts and IP ranges that are deemed responsible for or related to problematic activity. You may be an innocent victim of collateral damage, whereby a block of some other activity has accidentally caused your account to be unable to edit pages. If your editing access has been blocked by mistake, it will be reactivated very quickly, as soon as you let an administrator know of the problem. The box above gives the information you will need.

What is a block?

A block is a measure used to protect Wikipedia from possible improper use, or modification in breach of editorial policies. Once a block has expired, they become history unless problems reoccur. Blocks can be applied to a user account, an IP address, or a range of IP addresses. A number of automated features identify unblocked usage which apparently should be blocked; these are known as autoblocks and can be quickly rectified if incorrect.

Most common causes of an autoblock

The typical cause of an autoblock is because your IP address or network is either the same one used by another blocked account, or the software believes your account or IP address is connected to another blocked account. Due to the nature of some Internet service providers, automatic blocks may inadvertently affect people other than the person who the block was intended for.

Rectifying an autoblock

Unblock request

If you are unjustly affected by this block, please copy the following text and paste it to the bottom of your user talk page:

((unblock-auto|2=<nowiki>$2</nowiki>|3=$1|4=$5))

Once you have followed the instructions above, an administrator will be alerted to your unblock request, and will respond shortly in order to review the block.

If this is a problem that affects you repeatedly, we encourage you to contact your Internet service provider or IT department, and ask them to contact Wikimedia's XFF project about enabling X-Forwarded-For HTTP headers on their proxy servers. This will reduce the chances of you being affected by future automatic blocks.

Alternative option

You will usually receive a faster response by posting the ((unblock-auto|2=<nowiki>$2</nowiki>|3=$1|4=$5)) template onto your user talk page, as described in the instructions above. If you need help, however, you can submit a request to the Unblock Ticket Request System by clicking on "submit an unblock request" below. Make sure to include the block ID number shown in the box above.

Submit an unblock request

Even though requests sent to the Unblock Ticket Request System are viewable only by administrators and trusted volunteers, under no circumstances should you send anyone your account's password, or reveal it to anyone else—even if you're asked to do so.

This system exists for the purpose of reviewing blocks only—any request to make edits to articles on your behalf will be disregarded. Correspondence containing legal threats, personal attacks or rudeness are likely to be ignored and may result in having your current block extended.