3

The only other question on this topic I could find had 0 answers and was asked 4 years ago so I'm going to go ahead and ask it again

When I go to post a question, I get a warning stating some of my past questions were not well received and I may be blocked soon

Wait! Some of your past questions have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from asking any more.

For help formulating a clear, useful question, see: How do I ask a good question?

Also, edit your previous questions to improve formatting and clarity.

The only major set of downvotes was on an answer not a question (7 downvotes I think) and I deleted that months ago. Only activity in a couple of months has been a comment or two

What the heck is going on here? I had one account basically get banned (could not posts answers or questions) a few years back, and was only brave enough to create another account a little over a year ago, so I'm a little terrified to post on Ask Ubuntu now. I've accumalated about 298 rep on that site, and up to >1.3k on other sites, so obviously I'm doing something right, or at least not doing something wrong.

13
  • 3
    Note that deleting posts does not prevent them from being somehow (I am not sure how) counted towards bans.
    – Zanna Mod
    Commented Nov 21, 2019 at 5:41
  • 1
    More here: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/86997/…
    – DK Bose
    Commented Nov 21, 2019 at 6:19
  • 1
    SE is also usually able to track when you make a new account to get around a question ban
    – TheWanderer
    Commented Nov 21, 2019 at 11:03
  • @TheWanderer this account was literally back in like 2014
    – unixandria
    Commented Nov 21, 2019 at 12:58
  • 2
    @linuxandria it doesn't matter. The ban doesn't expire. Read through that meta link.
    – TheWanderer
    Commented Nov 21, 2019 at 13:07
  • 1
    @TheWanderer so because of 3 bad answers I can no longer even do anything about (don't remember the login) I'm now permanently limited no matter what I do??? That's quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Because editing questions NEVER works. People never remove downvotes and anyone who sees a downvoted question will Never up vote it
    – unixandria
    Commented Nov 21, 2019 at 15:54
  • I'm starting to really hate these sites
    – unixandria
    Commented Nov 21, 2019 at 15:55
  • 2
    I don't know if your account is near to a question ban due to the old account's bans or not (that can happen, but I don't know if it has in your case--maybe a moderator could check, I'm not sure). You should be able to reset the old account's password. Even without doing that, so long as you have some way to show the account is yours, I think you can request a merge: on the contact page, select "I need to merge user profiles." Whether merging would improve or worsen things, or leave them the same, I'm not sure.
    – Eliah Kagan
    Commented Nov 21, 2019 at 16:49
  • 1
    @EliahKagan question/answer bans are handled at the system level. Mods have no control over those nor insights into how close someone is to receiving such bans.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Nov 22, 2019 at 14:57
  • @ThomasWard Thanks. I knew mods couldn't cancel or otherwise affect the bans; I wasn't sure if mods could check into them or not, though it makes sense you cannot, given how they work.
    – Eliah Kagan
    Commented Nov 22, 2019 at 14:59
  • @EliahKagan.... When I literally have no idea the username or email used?
    – unixandria
    Commented Nov 22, 2019 at 15:02
  • @linuxandria If you don't know (and cannot find out) what username or email address you used... yeah, I think you're out of luck as far as that older account is concerned.
    – Eliah Kagan
    Commented Nov 22, 2019 at 15:04
  • @EliahKagan yeah I guessed.. amazing how you can be penalized for an coount from 5 years ago, where you were a newbie, screwed up a couple times and voiced a rather unpopular opinion about anitivirus on linux that got 16+ downvotes....and now your banned for life from the site basically. As I've said before, editing the question has a smaller chance of helping than simply wishing for it.
    – unixandria
    Commented Nov 22, 2019 at 15:07

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

This answer is broken, but I'll add it anyway. Because the people who make the rules do not allow me to comment, on account my rep is too low, I can not comment, but I can add answers. I know a mod will delete this answer, which is confusing, since it's happened to me before and I cannot track where my answer moved to that time either.

Basically, the site rules make it hard for spammers, but at the same time make it hard to people who only log in once a year to contribute either. A lot like the people who have Whatsapp accounts that got deleted simply because their homes had no internet access for 6 months, this also biases the community for people with less broad network access. As was the case when I first logged into SO a decade ago, I had almost no net access, and consequently use SO like wikipedia. Occasionally as a source of truth (I never did get wifi working though). I only came around to this idea of SO being like Wikipedia recently, and consequently I have screwed up.

Apologies to all the SO users. I. Would really like a more inclusive moderation rule set to come out based on account age where older accounts automatically accrue points on an anniversary. Sorry, to be glib. But mods should find it easy to apply a rule like that, a rule that works in just fine in 74.3% of all social interaction today. Simple is good.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .