Board Thread:Administrator's Noticeboard/@comment-7697305-20130618204429/@comment-4674838-20130625031831

Looks like Pathogen already blocked them. For future reference though, I wouldn't bother notifying IPs ahead of time. We rarely block them for longer than a week or two, and given the temporal nature of their edits and the block, it's just not a great use of time and resources. If they want to contest the block after the fact, they're certainly welcome to by following the instructions in the block notice they see (MediaWiki:Blockedtext).

For users with accounts, I would talk to them and give them a chance to discuss things if they seem to have some good intentions or constructive edits. Rather than threatening with a block or requesting a block, try to first explain to them what they're doing, why it's problematic, and suggesting an alternative or means of improvement. If they bite, great. If not and things seem to get out of hand or you don't want to talk them, a talk page note to an admin would be preferable.

Obvious trolls/vandals, on the other hand, should not be talked to at all, instead, we (ideally) follow the old Don't feed the trolls idiom. All that needs to be done is revert, block, ignore. I would say 99% of blocks fall under this category.