-3

My score is 212. Yes there is one day I asked 3 questions that is downvoted. However, I don't even know why it's downvoted. It seems like a fine question to me.

Then boom I am suspended for 1 week. No biggy. I'll just learn from my lesson. I didn't post anything anymore.

But now permanent ban?

That's pretty fast

Note: In other places like sceptic stack exchanges I asked really REALLY politically incorrect questions even sceptics refused to be scepticals. Even THERE, I don't get banned. They must have thought I am a troll.

I am a programmer and programmer is a field I am actually an expert. So I am surprised that I am banned here instead. First time ever in stackexchange.

Looks like the rapidity of downvoted questions is what triggers it. I got -5 for asking this question, and I think I should really move on.

5
  • 2
    Wait... I don't see anywhere in the mod stats that you were permanently banned. You recently were lifted from suspension though, is that what you mean?
    – maple_shaft Mod
    Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 11:45
  • 1
    @maple_shaft Question ban...
    – yannis
    Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 12:13
  • 1
    related post at MSO: What can I do when getting “Sorry, we are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account”? (the answer is here, in this post)
    – gnat
    Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 14:29
  • I was just surprised because my score is 216. Not very high but not that low.
    – user4951
    Commented Jul 11, 2012 at 12:50
  • Looks like I'll never be able to ask questions here again. I am sorry if I have hurt anyone. If someone still want to tell me what's wrong with those questions I'll really appreciate it. So I can learn in other stackexchange. Actually I asked some of my last questions out of gratitude, and I still think those questions are relationship. But I guess others disagree and I want to know why.
    – user4951
    Commented Sep 6, 2012 at 7:26

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
13

You seriously have no idea why you were suspended? This came as a complete surprise?

In less than two months you were able to achieve the astounding feat of posting 7 questions which have resulted in deletion. There are a few more which were closed. More than half of your questions were closed or deleted.

Your questions have been either of low quality or completely offtopic as was laid out in the Frequently Asked Questions. You were also contacted privately where we asked you to better familiarize yourself with the FAQ so that you can understand what kinds of questions we look for on Programmers.

You were given ample warning and multiple people have tried to give you direction.

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  • 1
    @Jim Thio: Were you genuinely curious? Just trying to be a knucklehead? Or a little of both? // Since I don't have 10k rep, I can't see your questions, but why not reflect and ask yourself: What would the ramifications be if the iOS API let developers access a user's Contact List and shut down all background tasks?
    – Jim G.
    Commented Jul 7, 2012 at 3:20
  • Actually IOS DOES have an API to let developer access a user's contact list. It will prompt the user first. Looks like somebody that DON'T know, think that it's something too stupid to ask because the answer is too obviously no. Well guess what, IOS does have that API. I do not know if IOS has API to shut down all unused non essential background programs like infinity blade 2. I suppose like contact they can ask the user to ensure that the users allow it.
    – user4951
    Commented Jul 7, 2012 at 16:32
  • Yes it came as a complete surprise because my score is 211. Programmer stack exchange is supposedly a place to ask question for programmers that are somewhat subjective. I think my question qualify. If it doesn't, I can't tell because it's already deleted. Till now, I don't understand what the problem of ANY of those question.
    – user4951
    Commented Jul 7, 2012 at 16:33
  • 1
    @Jim Thio: Point taken about the iOS API; but please understand - I couldn't see your original questions, so I wasn't in a perfect position to judge intent.
    – Jim G.
    Commented Jul 8, 2012 at 17:33
  • 1
    I know. I was so grateful about programmers stackexchange I decided to ask question about what question is appropriate for Apple Paid Support to help other members. That question seems to piss off a lot of people and my other 2 questions got downvoted too in fury :(. The last time I was perm banned is at meta stackoverflow. At that time my points was 50 or something.
    – user4951
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 2:58
  • 3
    I have 10k rep so can view those questions, and 6/7 were all deleted within about 24 hours of being closed (3 were deleted less than an hour after being closed). There's a good chance the OP never even saw that his questions were closed/downvoted because they were deleted so quickly.
    – Rachel
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 15:46
  • 2
    @Rachel The three speedy deletions happened after Jim was suspended, having been notified about the quality and fate of his questions via a mod message (and another one, with more details). Whether the mod messages where sufficient or not is something between the moderators and Jim, and he is free to ask for more details on Meta (and we aren't free to disclose any more details). I quickly deleted the closed and downvoted questions right after the suspension, so he'd return from it with a clean slate and re-gain the lost reputation.
    – yannis
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 18:56
  • 2
    @Rachel The question ban caught me by surprise, and I've restarted the conversation with Stack Exchange to let us know when a user is automatically question banned. Can't say I'm optimistic, though.
    – yannis
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 18:59
  • 3
    @JimThio As I told you in the last mod message, if you want further feedback on why your questions were closed, feel free to ask on Meta (something you still haven't done and in this Meta question you claim that "I'll just learn from my lesson"). The common problem with all your questions is that there's no prior research, and individual questions have other problems as well.
    – yannis
    Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 19:03
  • 1
    Well, I would love to ask why the questions are banned. However, I got -5 asking this already it's just going to make things worst. I'll just move on and be careful at other places. In other places like sceptic stack exchanges I asked really REALLY politically incorrect questions even sceptics refused to be scepticals. Even THERE, I don't get banned LOL :)
    – user4951
    Commented Jul 11, 2012 at 12:52
  • 1
    Very well I'll ask one more question on why I ask those questions.
    – user4951
    Commented Jul 11, 2012 at 12:59
9

The question ban is automatic, and it's not something the moderators control. We don't even know that you are question banned, unless you tell us. To lift the question ban you will need to follow the instructions given in this link, that should have appeared when you tried to ask a question.

Your question history is troubling, as maple_shaft already mentioned, from your 16 questions in total:

  • 9 were closed and deleted,
  • from the remaining 7, one is down voted and all but two were edited to fix obvious and not so obvious issues.

...and you have provided no answers. We don't require you to answer questions, provided you ask great ones, but when your questions are not really welcomed by the community, we do expect you to give back by providing some good answers. We are a community of volunteers, and it's only reasonable to expect you to give something back for all the help you have been getting.

It seems that this time the troubling question pattern kicked off both the manual suspension process1 and the automatic question ban. That's a bit harsh, and about a month ago I asked Stack Exchange to let moderators know when a user is question banned, as I feel it's quite annoying to come back from a suspension only to find out that a secondary and silent ban is in place, but my request was ignored. I honestly had no idea that you were question banned when I suspended you.

We don't even know the exact algorithm of the question ban and can't even guess if a user is banned or not, and at this point it's all up to you. If you feel the ban is unfair, you will have to contact Stack Exchange directly, at [email protected].

1 There were a lot of user flags on your questions, which brought the pattern to my attention, and I decided to suspend you.

4
  • Thanks for the clarification on the Question Ban. I for some reason thought we are able to determine if a user is Q-Banned without having to ask an SE employee.
    – maple_shaft Mod
    Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 12:19
  • I would bet doing a quick check of the closed/deleted to open question ratio would work as a pretty good indicator of most users who are question banned.
    – Ryathal
    Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 12:22
  • @Ryathal It doesn't, because it's not just the questions that factor in, but also answers, reputation and other things that only Stack Exchange knows about (and we don't even know if all closures factor in, for example do migrations count?). For a low rep user with 4-5 questions and no answers, it's pretty easy to guess, but other than that... The threshold is fluid, and at least once I have seen a user jumping in and out of the ban for a couple of weeks. Annoying!
    – yannis
    Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 12:31
  • 1
    @maple_shaft I think all moderators have asked for a way to know if a user is question banned at some point, and SE always declines (for some reason). The only thing we can see is if a user is question banned on Stack Overflow, if and only if we try to migrate one of their questions there.
    – yannis
    Commented Jul 6, 2012 at 12:34

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