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I was banned from posting questions a few days ago I read the post related to that and I want to get back my right to question. What things should I do to remove my ban and how does removing a ban work. Should I create a new account? Should I wait? Or should I edit my downvoted post? If you agree to the last how should I edit I mean what can I add when I have already gotten the answer and what else can I do to remove my ban? Thanks

(Edit:If you guys have some time please consider commenting on my posts what should I add and if my posts are fine please upvote so that my ban gets removed as soon as possible.)

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    $\begingroup$ I guess you wanted to write either "What should I do to remove my ban?" or "What should one do to remove his ban?" (Perhaps his/her or their.) I have edited a few typos in your question, but I am not sure what you actually wanted to write in the title. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 9:08
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    $\begingroup$ I've added a few "you specific" advice. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 10:53
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    $\begingroup$ I have been put under a question ban. $\endgroup$
    – amWhy
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 22:36
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    $\begingroup$ Why have I been banned from asking questions. $\endgroup$
    – amWhy
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 22:37
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    $\begingroup$ I have been banned from asking questions. What should I do?. $\endgroup$
    – amWhy
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 22:38
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    $\begingroup$ On another post, you asked me about why you were question banned. I should re-emphasize that this is an automatic ban done by the system, but I'll go ahead and make a guess. You have asked a total of 13 questions. 4 are downvoted and 4 are closed. Your net vote total on questions is -3. These are pretty poor characteristics. In fact, having a net negative vote total on over 10 questions sends a poor signal. Fortunately it is common for people to learn from their past and to get out of a question ban. For these, see the variety of links above. $\endgroup$
    – davidlowryduda Mod
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 15:37
  • $\begingroup$ @davidlowryduda thanks my dude I have edited and undeleted all my posts and added images in closed(for clarity) posts. My most downvoted post just got an upvote and I think the community will help me to remove this ban. I have also asked under my downvoted questions for suggestions on improvement. Let's hope I get free from this ban as soon as possible. $\endgroup$
    – user765842
    Commented Apr 22, 2020 at 3:25

2 Answers 2

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Do not create a new account.

If caught, the new account will be deleted, and the old one will be suspended. We do not take it lightly when people try to circumvent the automatic limitations of the software by creating more accounts.

Moreover, one trend that you notice almost right away after becoming a moderator, is that the people who do create more accounts hardly ever improve the quality of their posts. So they just end up getting more rate limits, they create more accounts, and the cycle continues. Some people are okay with that. But this shows that they have the utmost disregard to the community and ecosystem of this website.

Do not delete questions.

While we do not know the exact algorithm that puts users in a post ban, we know that deleted posts count massively towards that. What's worse is that you cannot improve deleted posts, so their weight just stays there forever.

Waiting is an option, but not a great one.

There are "short bans" which can be for a day or three or a week, and there are "permanent bans" which tend to go for six months or longer. If you simply wait, you might have to wait a long time.

What's worse is that the more bans you've had before, the quicker it will be for you to get more bans. That means that if you waited out the ban, and finally posted a new question, then the slightest hint that the question is not perfect will throw you back into the ban, possibly for an even longer period. And again, we don't quite know what these things are, but even a single downvote might do the deed.

Improve your posts. Yes.

The goal of a post ban is to give you time to reflect on what you have done wrong, and to look at posts that are well-received. On this site, that means learning to use MathJax properly, and writing a clear question with all the necessary information.

Eventually, this will improve your asking abilities, which is a great skill for life in general.

While I don't know off-hand if that can get you immediately out of a post-ban, it will certainly help to keep you out of there once you get yourself back on track.

So what can you do?

Your account shows four downvoted questions, and four deleted questions (one question is both).

You should improve your downvoted questions, and you should undelete your deleted questions. Improve them. And if you have found answers to them, post answers to your questions.

While this site is not meant as a personal blog, or a place for people to write out their questions only to answer them soon thereafter, it is better to have good questions with good answers, even if you posted both.

In the future, try to write down the question properly, then leave it for a day or so, clear your head, work on something else, do the dishes and clean the house. Come back the next day, re-read you question. If it's really something trivial that you've missed, you're likely to find it yourself.

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    $\begingroup$ Regarding a paragraph from the new edit. Are you saying that it's not okay for someone to answer oneselfs question immediately after posting it? $\endgroup$
    – Zacky
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 11:35
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    $\begingroup$ No, I'm saying that one should not make a habit out of it. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 11:49
  • $\begingroup$ “A single downvote might do the deed.” Does this mean any downvote, or a net negative total on a post. I don’t see how any downvotes is a reasonable metric when we don’t exactly require users to prove every downvote is for the reasons we desire... and I don’t mean malicious I mean that this hypothetical might be for incredibly dumb reasons such as “this question isn’t challenging for anyone outside of high school”. $\endgroup$
    – user64742
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 14:10
  • $\begingroup$ @user64742: As I said, I do not have intimate knowledge of the algorithm. I can only tell you what I have observed, how quickly people get re-banned. If you want to make an argument about this with someone who is more knowledgeable, and has the power to facilitate change, you should take it to Meta Stack Exchange. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 15:13
  • $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila it was more of a general comment of “if that is really the case then at a certain point waiting for unban becomes virtually impossible as a way to get out of the ban” so the user should not allow it to get that far to begin with. Furthermore, while you personally might not govern the algorithm a thread such as this is a reasonable place to talk about potential flaws in the algorithm. I wouldn’t dare write a meta post unless our community as a whole is complaining. I have no business making a meta stack exchange post and I imagine their mods will immediately close as such. $\endgroup$
    – user64742
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 21:02
  • $\begingroup$ To phrase another way, the user cannot really just wait for an unban as it is inevitable due to the ecosystem of MSE that they will receive at least one downvote following the unban. Therefore they should not. $\endgroup$
    – user64742
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 21:03
  • $\begingroup$ Too bad I was banned yesterday $\endgroup$
    – Aderinsola Joshua
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 21:26
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    $\begingroup$ @user64742: The point is that users should be on perfect behaviour if they were banned. At least for some time. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 21:29
  • $\begingroup$ @AderinsolaJoshua: That is a shame. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 21:30
  • $\begingroup$ I was banned because most of my post were not answered, some deleted.... Now I don't know what to do, wait for 6 months or longer and even still my account will never remain the same $\endgroup$
    – Aderinsola Joshua
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 21:42
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    $\begingroup$ @AderinsolaJoshua: Well, your most recent question is closed. You have three deleted questions, all closed, two of which heavily downvoted (-3 and -5). You can try and improve at least the most recent one. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 21:44
  • $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila and what about users who deliberately downvote random posts especially if past behavior included poor posts? There is a flaw in that system, but I don’t know if it large enough to be worth fixing. $\endgroup$
    – user64742
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 21:57
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    $\begingroup$ @user64742 Is that pure speculation from you? I usually don't see people downvoting random posts. I do see people downvoting low quality posts. And, for the record, I have cast approximately ten upvotes to each downvote (the ratio was higher earlier in the site history, when we had less duplication). $\endgroup$
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 11:46
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    $\begingroup$ @user64742: Moderators have no powers to enact or relief post bans or rate limits. How would you like the software to decide when to send someone to a rate limit, if not by community feedback? But by finiteness, there will be someone whose vote is the "decision vote". And if you are going to argue that this is the sum of many users' voting, well, the situation is the same here. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 18:18
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    $\begingroup$ "I have seen people target specific users and go digging through their posts and ask people to vote in various ways on those posts to “discourage this user from continuing to pollute our site with their presence” and when you look a little deeper and read between the lines it is clear they are making that request purely because the users has a disagreement and they want to retaliate." @user if this is so you should report it. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented Apr 22, 2020 at 6:40
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I think that the moderator's answer is right $100$%, in particular for the mentioned advices, but I would like to add some remarks.

First the situation of users posting with good faith in this site and that can be supposedly banned to ask more questions seems to me sad. My belief is that should be considered statistics about how many downvotes can to get users for his/her first few questions specially in this site Mathematics Stack Exchange (I know also other professional site similar than this site in which also, if I'm right, was this problem of ban to ask more questions): for example I've seen sometimes New contributors get many downvotes in a short lapse of time. I've tried sometimes in the past to draw attention for some situations that I don't like.

In my view this site Mathematics Stack Exchange is different of other sites Stack Exchange because mathematics are an important and difficult subject.

The truth is that I have loss my hope in real life situations, of adding a constructive opinion or criticism and expecting a positive change from it.

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    $\begingroup$ Also I evoke in this comment that an useful idea should be a tool to visualize (as a preview of the situation) when one can gets a ban to ask more questions if one gets additional downvotes. $\endgroup$
    – user759001
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 21:42
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    $\begingroup$ Indeed. There are a multitude of users who intentionally downvote new users for the purposes of discouraging them from using the site. I refuse to share specific names nor would I likely be accurate-it was a long time ago. $\endgroup$
    – user64742
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 21:54
  • $\begingroup$ In my opinion the important thing is elucidate if there is a problem with statistics, and after try to evoke a solution @user64742 $\endgroup$
    – user759001
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 22:05
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    $\begingroup$ I don’t understand what you are saying at all. Users will always abuse the system and bully new users. This is the nature of the site, unfortunately. What problem with statistics are you referring to? The solution would be to start monitoring every user and banning anyone that might be bullying another user, but that is completely totalitarian and would never fly. $\endgroup$
    – user64742
    Commented Apr 20, 2020 at 23:09
  • $\begingroup$ The right in my opinion is that I've said @user64742 . First the statistics about how are downvoted (mainly) the new users in his/her first few questions, after analyze it to know what is the problem and after try to propose a solutions. If the statistics shows malicious downvoting then it is a problem that must be moderated. This is the way to do things in my opinion, ask yourself why you don't know these statistics. Are there statistics that evidence if there is unfair downvoting, an analysis of the data a proposal for solution to avoid injustices? I'm done here, best wishes. $\endgroup$
    – user759001
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 7:13
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    $\begingroup$ There is no “statistics” to be “analyzed”. I know there are users that deliberately downvote new users. I have seen it happen many times. Therefore a problem exists. Plain and simple. To claim that we need “statistics” to justify action is wrong. We should always be making rules that work in the best and worst case scenarios. $\endgroup$
    – user64742
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 7:24
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    $\begingroup$ That I add in my comment @user64742 is an algorithm (statistics-analysis-proposal of solution) for any problem. I didn't tell you what I would like to do the situations that I don't like (you don't know it). The solution in a democratic community is not what I want to propose. I do sympathize with all those users, including you, who are trying to help in this situation. In my opinion a key is if there exist statistics. $\endgroup$
    – user759001
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 7:46