My account was suspended recently. I was told the reasons for the suspension in a moderator private message. However, I didn't understand them fully. Since I don't want my account to be suspended again, I would like make them clear. How can I do it? Can I ask it as a meta question?
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asked Oct 14, 2013 at 21:32
3 Answers
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This is not an official answer. These are just my thoughts on how you might approach this.
I will heed the call from zyx and try to assume that you are sincere in your concerns and that you are not just trying to engage in empty discussion. So, until you get a proper answer from a moderator about how you can get further details about your suspension, here are my thoughts how I would deal with your situation if I was you.
So I assume that your question simply is: After a suspension, how can one find more detailed information about the reasons for the suspension than what has been provided?
You could try to contact the moderator's privately. From what I understand you can do that here: https://math.stackexchange.com/contact. From comments to this answer it sounds like you might already have tried this.
You could also try to ask this general question on https://meta.stackoverflow.com/ since the specific answer might be helpful for others in the future..
You could also contact the StackExchange team directly since it seems like (I might be wrong here) there might be a conflict between you and the moderators. And I notice that a moderator has suggested this to you. (But then again, you might not feel that you have been wronged).
Also, if you are specifically interested in the decisions behind your suspension and if you don't feel that you are getting any answers here, you could try to contact the team behind Stackexchange.
I see here: http://stackexchange.com/about/team that they have a Community manager. Accoding to this post it looks like they have more than one and that part of their job is : "They review moderator actions, offer advice, resolve disputes.". So if you feel that you would like advice, or if you feel that there is a dispute, maybe contacting them would be an idea.
Hopefully I didn't say anything wrong in this post, and I hope that you read it remembering that I am just imagining what I would do if I had your questions.
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5$\begingroup$ These observations look good to me. Aside from replying to the private messages he has gotten from the moderators, contacting the community team using the Contact Us Link is the best choice. $\endgroup$– robjohn ModOct 15, 2013 at 0:51
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4$\begingroup$ @robjohn Thanks for the info. I did reply to the moderator private message. I had conversation with a moderator through the private moderator messages regarding my account suspension. However, I could not ask him about the reasons for the suspension because he had not responded until I opened this thread to my last reply which was about what he wrote in one of the messages:
[And yes, this suspension was unanimous. Your posts have been flagged more than any other user by a huge margin, both on the main and meta sites.]. $\endgroup$ Oct 15, 2013 at 1:43
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To answer in the qusetion in the abstract:
Since I don't want my account to be suspended again, I would like make [the reasons for the suspension] clear. How can I do it?
When you receive a message from your friendly neighbourhood moderators™, respond with a request for clarification. The private messaging system is built so that a user can only reply to messages sent by the moderators (or comm team), which means that for every message we send, the user is permitted one reply.
Use that reply wisely, as the moderators are not obliged to respond to every message you send.
Can I ask it as a meta question?
It appears that you can. I am not too fond of this approach, as the moderators are severely limited in what they can disclose, and so you are unlikely to receive the best answers using this method.
answered Oct 15, 2013 at 4:21
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9$\begingroup$ When a suspended user is publicly asking for the details of their suspension to be made public, is there no option for this request to be granted? $\endgroup$ Oct 15, 2013 at 4:55
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1$\begingroup$ @The Chaz 2.0: Makoto Kato says, "I was told the reasons for the suspension in a moderator private message." He could post those himself if he thought it would serve some purpose. However, there is no obligation for the moderators to post the reasons, even if he requests it. $\endgroup$ Oct 15, 2013 at 12:32
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2$\begingroup$ @CarlMummert, he did post them, in an earlier and user-specific analogue of this thread. This is a more abstract question that can apply to other situations. $\endgroup$– zyxOct 15, 2013 at 16:06
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4$\begingroup$ @zyx: thank you for the clarification! It makes more sense now. That sort of situation has come up before, where Makoto Kato posted another meta question when his first one was closed. But, if he has already posted the reason for his suspension, then I think the answer to this question is trivially "yes", and I cannot understand why a link to the original question, meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/11158/… , was not included in the original question. Those are questions only Makoto Kato can answer, of course. $\endgroup$ Oct 15, 2013 at 17:01
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$\begingroup$ The other past and future situations relate to many different users. The absence of any link or special details in the question that are particular to a single user are exactly what creates the opportunity to treat this as (I think the first ever) meta.MSE question on the abstract and recurring topic at hand. @CarlMummert $\endgroup$– zyxOct 15, 2013 at 20:40
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I am a latecomer to the party; but, having appreciated the mathematical interest in the OP's large number of posts, I did a little digging into the past meta posts trying to find out the reason for such a prolific user being suspended.
All I can say to the community is that this issue may be kept in mind during the design of the next version of the site. Just like discussion forums have evolved into Q&A sites like this one, maybe in future there will be further evolution into even better things.
And then, some way can be incorporated to alleviate the problem of frequent bumps to the front page whenever large number of edits are done. Maybe some kind of special provision can be made for "time-consuming answer in progress," for instance by way of some flag in the database, or even an extra table for such. The post should be visible on the front page only after the user indicates that it is fully finished. But it will still be visible on the user's page, and if it is an answer, on the corresponding question page too.
This may be something inherent in math in that it can proceed at an elephant's pace taking years or decades, whereas programming needs are much quicker and so StackOverflow's designers may not have faced such issues in the past.
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1$\begingroup$ Fortunately, the bumping issue has been somewhat addressed by the use of a special question on meta for composing answers. There is a separate issue, however, which has more to do with interpersonal communication and community norms. This meta question, and the associated answers and comments, is an example of what I am talking about: meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/6525/… $\endgroup$ Oct 16, 2013 at 10:42
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$\begingroup$ @CarlMummert: Thanks for the link. If this problem is so old, then it seems to have ramifications beyond my limited comprehension. Still it is mildly surprising to have issues surrounding such an active contributor. Ah, Let me just leave it at that; even in academia we deal with the occasional odd people and it isn't worth the effort to put our heads into each and every matter. $\endgroup$– user96815Oct 16, 2013 at 16:19
[Mods are not at liberty to publicly discuss details of a suspension.]If it's only because of protection of a suspended member's honor, no need of that in this case, because the user is willing to publicly discuss the details of his suspension. $\endgroup$