Process for blacklist removal

If you’re a website owner and have noticed that your site/product is on our blacklist, then this is the appropriate process to follow to have it removed.

Some general notes:

• This process is for removal requests from external parties only. If you’re part of Charcoal and think that a blacklist item should be removed, then please talk to a code admin.
• Even if we do remove your website from our blacklists, past GitHub commits/PRs will still indicate that it was on the list at some point. There is nothing we can do to take down these pages.
• Please don’t be hostile when requesting the removal of your site. It will only increase the likelyhood that we will deny your request.
• This process can only happen once. If the website appears in a confirmed spam post whilst the process is taking place, we will revert the term to its original state. If the website is removed, then later added to our blacklist, you cannot request for it to be removed again.
• To see the decisions behind the design of this process, see this GitHub issue.

Blacklist removal process

1. Website owner requests for their site/product to be removed from our blacklists by creating a new issue on the SmokeDetector repository.
2. The requestor must demonstrate that:
   • They are an official representiative of the website/product in question (proof required)
   • The website is not responsible for past spam on StackExchange, and has put measures in place to prevent or condone future attempts to spam SE.
3. Charcoal will decide whether to intiate the removal process. If the removal of the site is directly contrary to our project goal or harms our spam checks in terms of functionality/performance, we may deny the request.
4. If the blacklist item has not been caught in any confirmed spam post on SE in the last 6 months, it will be demoted to the watchlist.
5. If the item is not caught for another two months, it will be removed from the watchlist.
6. If the item is caught again after the removal, our standard blacklisting procedures will still apply.