Community Content Moderation Guidelines

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Users with moderator privileges have the ability to remove inappropriate content from the site. Moderators can delete the content of an individual edit, or they can delete an entire content block, including the complete history of the block.

Deleting an Edit

When moderators view the history of a community content block, a delete link is associated with each edit. Clicking the link will remove the edit version from the overall block history.

Deleting a Content Block

If none of the content in a block’s history is appropriate for the wiki, a moderator can delete the entire block. Moderators will see a delete link associated with each block on the topic.

When to Delete Content

Reasons for deleting an edit or a content block may include, but are not limited to:

  • Content Violates the MSDN Wiki Terms of Use or Code of Conduct – This includes content that the user doesn’t have the legal right to post, content that is profane or obscene, and content that defames or attacks another person.
  • Test Content – Occasionally people create new blocks that are just testing out the functionality. (These usually include text something like “test post”.) This content will be deleted outright.
  • Spam – Spam will be deleted outright. This includes advertising for sites.
  • Content Leverages MSDN Wiki as Part of a Spamming Spree– If a user is leveraging the community content in any way for spamming purposes or to draw unneeded attention to himself, the edit or block will be deleted.
  • Irrelevant Content – If content is not relevant to the topic with which it is associated, a moderator will delete the block (if this is the only entry in the block) or edit the content so the block is restored to a state in which its content is relevant to the associated topic.
  • Commercial Activity - It is not acceptable to use Community Content for commercial activities, including, but not limited to, commercial solicitation of businesses and websites for purpose of financial gain. Commercial activity means that you may not sell, advertise or promote products, websites, or free offerings through Community Content. Violation of this guideline can result in immediate suspension of your account and removal of all posts.
  • Incomprehensible Content — Content that is too poorly written to be understood or is completely nonsensical (e.g., “asdfasdf”) will be deleted if it is the only content in the block. If other content exists in the block history, you can edit the block or roll back to an earlier version, rather than deleting the content or the block.
  • Duplicate Content – If content is duplicated within a single topic, all but one copy of the content should be deleted. Content that is unnecessarily duplicated across several topics should also be deleted. Moderators will use their best judgment to ensure that information is placed where appropriate, but is not included more often than necessary. For example, a content block that provides general information about the GridView control should probably be associated with the GridView managed reference overview or the GridView members page. It does not need to be repeated in the topics for each GridView member.
  • Documentation Feedback – MSDN Wiki is not the right place to post documentation feedback. If you see doc feedback in MSDN Wiki content, request that the user enter the feedback in the ratings control associated with the topic (or you can enter it yourself). Sometimes the feedback may contain useful information that, while doc feedback, is also relevant for MSDN Wiki—for example if the feedback was a suggestion about related links that could be added to the topic. In cases like this, moderators may leave the feedback in the wiki rather than deleting it.
  • Bug Reports – Bugs should be reported through the MSDN Product Feedback center. However, it is sometimes useful to note relevant bug information from MSDN Wiki as well. If you see a bug reported in MSDN Wiki, ask the reporter to file the information in the Product Feedback Center and then link to the bug report from the MSDN Wiki entry.
  • Links - URLs that do not link to specific content such as a code snippit, or workaround, which directly supports the topic will be deleted. Links and references to businesses, promotions and search engines will be deleted.
  • Questions – The information displayed in the MSDN Wiki blocks should be consensus information. MSDN Wiki is not the right place for people to ask questions or hold threaded discussions. If you see questions or discussions happening in MSDN Wiki, request that the users move the conversation or question to the MSDN or ASP.NET forums. If the content block also contains consensus information, you can edit the thread so that only the consensus information is displayed; you don’t need to delete any content. If the entire history of the block consists of questions or a threaded discussion, a moderator may need to delete the entire block.

User Suspension Guidelines

Suspension should be used sparingly; it’s generally not a very effective way of keeping troublemakers from posting to the site because it is relatively simple for users to get a new Passport account and re-register for MSDN Wiki under a new user name. Users generally shouldn’t be suspended for a single inappropriate contribution; suspension should only be used for users who are repeatedly and regularly posting inappropriate content to the MSDN Wiki site. It is often useful to post to the moderators forum before suspending a user to see whether other moderators have encountered problematic content from the same user.