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Just finally figuring out exactly what kind of questions are meant for Programmers. Now when I try to ask a question my account is banned?

Really? I have over 400 reputation points on Stack Overflow and all hardy any down votes.

So frustrated with Programmers... do I have to look for an alternative?

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  • @ChrisMarisic without stats regarding new users (requested here) it is difficult to reason about stuff like that. We simply can't tell whether this is an isolated case or widespread issue
    – gnat
    Aug 27, 2014 at 7:00

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Question bans are on a per-site basis and are based on your asking history on that site. Your reputation on Stack Overflow has no bearing on your standing here, where you have asked 3 questions (here, here, and here for you and 10k+ users). All three have a net negative score, two were closed, and all three were deleted. It's not surprising that this triggered the automatic question ban, which are described in detail in the Help Center and in this question on Meta Stack Exchange.

If you're interested in participating here, I would recommend that you read how to get a question ban lifted as well as better understand what is and is not on-topic here (which is pretty clear in our Help Center's on-topic and do not ask pages. If you aren't interested in working to get your question ban lifted, then yes, finding an alternative is likely your only option.

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    Im sorry, but a bullet point list of on-topics is not very clear, and very subjective. even when a question is closed it states.. "While what’s on- and off-topic is not always intuitive.." Just weird to get a popular question badge for a question that gets me banned. please take my badge back.
    – jaybny
    May 5, 2014 at 16:33
  • @jaybny If you thought that the things that are on and off-topic here were confusing, the right thing to do would have been to ask here on Meta.Programmers or in our chat room for clarification. We did just clarify the on-topic list a few weeks ago to eliminate some ambiguities (and posted a featured meta discussion to both obtain feedback in advance as well as inform the community that the changes went live). Generally, there hasn't been a lot of recent visible confusion about the scope of this site.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    May 5, 2014 at 17:15
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    I believe I have a good question for Programmers that is on-topic.. but until my ban is lifted there is no point. On a side note, is it better to leave bad questions on the site or delete them? It seems that a deleted question is worse than a bad one. IMO self-deleting a bad question is a positive. I think there even is a badge for that on stackoverflow.
    – jaybny
    May 5, 2014 at 17:27
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    @jaybny Unfortunately, the question and answer ban algorithms are not disclosed nor are they controlled by moderators (or any human - they are fully automated). Your ban won't just magically be lifted - you need positive contributions (like answers) and it will eventually be lifted.
    – Thomas Owens Mod
    May 5, 2014 at 17:29
  • questions aren't very heavily downvoted (-1, -1, -4) but what strikes me is that none has any upvotes on them. Given that total views on these are over 1200, this sends rather strong signal that site users don't consider them worthy
    – gnat
    May 6, 2014 at 8:36

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