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This message contains important information about an administrative situation on Wikipedia. It does not imply any misconduct regarding your own contributions to date.
Discretionary sanctions is a system of conduct regulation designed to minimize disruption to controversial topics. This means uninvolved administrators can impose sanctions for edits relating to the topic that do not adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, our standards of behavior, or relevant policies. Administrators may impose sanctions such as editing restrictions, bans, or blocks. This message is to notify you that sanctions are authorised for the topic you are editing. Before continuing to edit this topic, please familiarise yourself with the discretionary sanctions system. Don't hesitate to contact me or another editor if you have any questions.
Some pages and topics on Wikipedia are authorised for Arbitration Discretionary Sanctions (DS). Users editing these pages may be alerted that discretionary sanctions are in effect. You must use this template to do so.
Alerts ensure a user knows what is expected of them. Alerts are a neutral courtesy; never use them to intimidate, coerce, or shame another editor.
To alert a user, open a new section on their user talk page. Paste the following code into it, replacing topic code – see list with the corresponding code from the table below. Type an appropriate subject line, then save the page.
{{subst:alert|topic code here – select from list}} ~~~~
Do not add additional text underneath the template. Alerts longer than 1700 bytes (i.e. 1700 characters) will not be logged and tagged. You should post additional comments, if required, underneath the alert and in a second edit (full explanation).
The template is flexible through the parameters |2=, which adds text to the box, and |sig=, which adds your signature.
{{subst:alert|topic code here – select from list|2=If you have questions, please contact me.|sig=yes}}
Logging
Using this template will trigger EditFilter 602. As a result, your edit containing the alert will be tagged with "discretionary sanctions alert". Edits with this tag can be searched for in user contributions, user talk page histories, Special:RecentChanges, and the log of EditFilter 602.
Therefore, an automatic system log of all alerts is maintained. You need not do anything except leave the alert.
To see whether a user has been Alerted to discretionary sanctions, load the history of their user talk page and search for discretionary sanctions alert under the 'tag filter' field. You can use the {{Ds/log}} template (usually alongside {{user}} in noticeboard reports) to quickly generate links for conducting searches of issued alerts.
Additionally, current instances of the template are tracked here and counted here. Alerts that were subsequently deleted from the user's talk page will only appear in the EditFilter log, so this is the primary tracking mechanism.
If your alert does not log, please seek assistance at Template talk:Ds.
Codes
When leaving a user an Alert, you must replace |topic code – select from list with the relevant topic code:
governmental regulation of firearm ownership; the social, historical and political context of such regulation; and the people and organizations associated with these issues
all edits about, and all pages related to, (a) GamerGate, (b) any gender-related dispute or controversy, (c) people associated with (a) or (b), all broadly construed
any page relating to or any edit about: (i) the Gender Gap Task Force; (ii) the gender disparity among Wikipedians; and (iii) any process or discussion relating to these topics, all broadly construed
any page relating to or any edit about: (i) the Gender Gap Task Force; (ii) the gender disparity among Wikipedians; and (iii) any process or discussion relating to these topics, all broadly construed
all pages relating to genetically modified organisms, commercially produced agricultural chemicals and the companies that produce them, broadly construed
Substituted instances of this template are tracked using the Z-number template {{Z33}}. Use of this template can be tracked at Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Z33.
Edits containing a substituted instance of this template will trigger AbuseFilter 602. The exact text which triggers the AbuseFilter are declared in the publicly-viewable filter conditions.
If the parameter |1= fails to display, |topic= or |t= can be used instead.
This template will return an error if:
|1= or an equivalent is not declared;
the template is not substituted; or
the template is used outside the user talk or user namespaces.
Template:Alert is a redirect to Template:Ds/alert. Instructions for this template, Ds/alert, are often given with reference to the template name Alert. This is for brevity's sake; the two template names refer to the same actual template.
Information on adding new topic areas to the index above is given at the bottom of Template:Ds/topics/single notice, which is displayed at the bottom of the main template page.
This template is included in Category:Wikipedia templates to be automatically substituted, so AnomieBOT will automatically substitute it. (As the template returns an error if used unsubstituted, AnomieBOT will not have to frequently, if ever, do this.)
This template is within the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Committee, as one of its associated enforcement processes. Therefore, you must not make significant changes to the wording or functionality of this template without the committee's consent. Thank you!
Edits to this template, even trivial ones, are likely to break the associated system messages and filters. Please do not change this template unless you (i) are very sure of what you are doing and (ii) have checked the associated systems for code reliant on the text, functionality, or code you are changing. In particular, it is vital that you not change any of these two lines: