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I've flagged some posts and comments and nothing happened.

Edit 1. An update after correspondence with the The Stack Exchange Team about my flag-ban:

  • As people thinks here (Permanent flag-ban without warning.) it seems that I've been banned from sending flags to moderators. Is there anything you can do in order to reset my flag weight?

Yes, you likely are flag-banned. You've had nearly as many flags declined as you accepted! Indeed, you seem to have gone out of your way to make a nuisance of yourself using the flag system, repeatedly flagging the same posts when you were unhappy with the outcome of your previous flag.

Convince the moderators on Math.SE that the site would benefit if they were able to see more flags from you, and I'll lift the ban. Otherwise, you'll just end up in the same situation again in a week.

-The Stack Exchange Team

  • What do you mean by "Convince the moderators on Math.SE that the site would benefit if they were able to see more flags from you"? Are you expecting a request for lifting this flag-ban from one of the moderators?

The thing to do would be to edit your meta question to indicate that you understand you have been flag banned, and explain to the moderators how you'll make certain that your flags will be accurate and not simply noise in the future if the ban is lifted. If the moderators indicate agreement, we'll lift the ban.

That's the best we can offer you - there's no codified help once you reach the level that you have - the ban is not designed to be escaped as it's an absolute last resort.

Regards, Stack Exchange Team

After this I gave up. Let me say that never ever someone sent me a warning mentioning the possibility to be flag-banned if..., that's why I think this "absolute last resort" must be a joke.

Edit 2. A moderator told me once: If the questions are actually duplicates, the answers can be merged into one question. After this I've flagged many duplicates in order to be merged, but other moderators found this inappropriate and rejected my flags. At that moment I had no idea where to look to see what's going on with my flags. Furthermore, I had no idea that some amount of rejected flags leads to a permanent ban.

I can survive with or without this ban, but it's better to make it public in order to let other users to know the "subtleties" of the system.

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    $\begingroup$ I had a moderator act on a flag of mine yesterday, so moderation is not suspended. (Why would it be? The current moderators are still moderators, even those that have stated their intention of resigning but still have their diamonds.) $\endgroup$
    – user642796
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 7:29
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    $\begingroup$ Really... the idea that moderation is suspended is rather weird, isn't it? Don't you think if for some reason this had been the case we would not at the very least let the site know? Maybe you can rephrase your title/question in a way that does not suggest such silly behaviour on the part of mods and everyone else involved? $\endgroup$
    – Mariano Suárez-Álvarez
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 7:31
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    $\begingroup$ «Why have my last few flags not been acted upon?» $\endgroup$
    – Mariano Suárez-Álvarez
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 7:37
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    $\begingroup$ Anarchy on MSE... $\endgroup$
    – Michael Greinecker
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 7:45
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    $\begingroup$ For the record, several comments (and an answer with tons of comments) have been deleted by their owners here: that is why the comment thread is as random as it is... $\endgroup$
    – Mariano Suárez-Álvarez
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 8:04
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    $\begingroup$ @YACP This was a response to the presumed suspension of law and order on MSE under the original title. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Greinecker
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 8:15
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    $\begingroup$ +1 Because I was surprised to learn about flag-hellbans. These seem like a legitimate problem. $\endgroup$
    – Alex Becker
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 12:19
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    $\begingroup$ Dumb question, how do people tell whether the flags have been declined? I can't seem to find that info anywhere. $\endgroup$
    – Noah Snyder
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 14:55
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    $\begingroup$ On your user profile you should see a number saying "helpful flags: $x$", where $x$ is the number of flags that you raised and been marked helpful. If you click that number you are magically transported to the list of flags that you have raised, their status and some basic statistics about your flagging history. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 19:05
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    $\begingroup$ @AlexBecker Flag bans are a legitimate problem, or the behavior leading to a flag ban is a legitimate problem? $\endgroup$
    – Scott H.
    Commented May 13, 2013 at 21:49
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    $\begingroup$ Is there a good way for me to see if I've been flag hell-banned? I think Bill declined a bunch of my flags during the big cheating scandal. $\endgroup$
    – Noah Snyder
    Commented May 13, 2013 at 22:48
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    $\begingroup$ @zyx and Noah: Please try to stay on-topic! $\endgroup$
    – user26857
    Commented May 13, 2013 at 23:13
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    $\begingroup$ @YACP: I thought my question was on-topic. I have a large number of declined flags from tht incident and so may be hell-banned. I'd like to know if I can find out if I have been or not. $\endgroup$
    – Noah Snyder
    Commented May 13, 2013 at 23:22
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    $\begingroup$ Your editing has caused many comments to become irrelevant. I'm surprised the Team suggested you edit the question. I would have thought a better idea would be email to a mod, asking the mod to look over your flagging history to see whether the mod would ask the Team to lift the ban, or to discuss what modifications of your flagging methods might be in order should the ban be lifted. Must be better to hash this out in private than in public. Not much us non-mods can do for you. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented May 14, 2013 at 13:55
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    $\begingroup$ @YACP: maybe, instead of repeatedly flagging things, you should bring up the topic of dup-merging here for the community to discuss? $\endgroup$
    – Shog9
    Commented May 15, 2013 at 14:18

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You're almost certainly flag-hellbanned. This is a rather drastic defense against users with a terrible flag record. The details are rather complicated because it is based on the flag weight which users and mods can't see anymore.

This means that moderators simply won't see any of your flags anymore. There is no way to get out of this hellban. The original idea as far as I know was that you could still recover if you flagged posts that other users flagged as well or acted on, but that was never implemented. I assume that SE developers could also manually reset your flag weight, so there is still the option to contact SE directly (via a mail to [email protected]).

This system is going away and will likely be replaced by blocking users for a short time when to many flags are declined.

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  • $\begingroup$ Uh, IIRC you can get out of the hellban by flagging something that's also been flagged by other users, if the moderators then mark that flag as helpful. $\endgroup$
    – badp
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 8:56
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    $\begingroup$ @badp That doesn't work, but that was the intended way out that I mentioned. $\endgroup$
    – user9733
    Commented May 11, 2013 at 8:58
  • $\begingroup$ This answer seems to be obsolete. For instance, I I think have at least a reasonable flag record and at present I cannot flag anything. If this isn't a bug, then something new has happened. $\endgroup$
    – user26857
    Commented Sep 18, 2015 at 16:48