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Possible Duplicate:
What can I do when getting “Sorry, we are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account”?

Recently, I logged onto SO after a week offline, and was greeted with the message

Sorry, we are no longer accepting questions from this account. See http://goo.gl/C1Kwu to learn more.

when I tried to ask a question.

After reading through the link, I learned a little about how the system works (it factors upvotes and downvotes, and probably has closed questions/moderator action involved). I recognize that my question-asking skills probably aren't the best, but I do my research before asking, and I try to make sense in my questions (even though it doesn't always go as planned)

I'm not asking for a repeal, but I would like to know what I would have to work on to prevent this from happening in the future.

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  • We'll take care of the destructive comments, don't worry. I can't guarantee that you'll like the constructive answers, of course. Sep 14, 2012 at 12:51
  • @Martijn Pieters: I was going to say we'd destroy the destructive comments, but... Sep 14, 2012 at 12:52
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    Did you delete any questions, or were some of your questions deleted? They might provide (even) more insight into the problems than the currently visible questions do.
    – Bart
    Sep 14, 2012 at 12:52
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    Looking through the questions I see, a lot of them do appear to be little more than requests for code. They are not the most terrible of questions I've seen, but they are not particularly good or appropriate either.
    – Bart
    Sep 14, 2012 at 12:56
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    @MartijnPieters, I can take criticism, been doing it for 9 years now (but that's another story)
    – Azulflame
    Sep 14, 2012 at 12:57
  • @Bart, I have deleted 1 of my questions, and I have had one closed for a duplicate (I was not sure of what I needed and asked for community input, and the one that it was marked as a dupe of I had already seen and it didn't answer my question.) But my rep has always been positive, sits at 77 right now, and I have received many more upvotes than downvotes.
    – Azulflame
    Sep 14, 2012 at 12:58
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    Well, rep can never go negative anyway, but you have several 0-score questions (with problems as I stated above), one closed question (can happen) and one deleted question (perhaps downvoted?). All that figures into a possible ban. If that's all, you can't be in very deep. So follow the advice given in the answer below and you should be good to go in no time.
    – Bart
    Sep 14, 2012 at 13:02
  • Bart, if you put that in an answer, I would upvote it (but unless it's better than sagilMahajanMj's, they'll get the accepted answer)
    – Azulflame
    Sep 14, 2012 at 13:04

1 Answer 1

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I was also banned from asking questions on Stack Overflow. The most probable reasons I found for it were:

  • Some of my questions were having few Down-votes.
  • One other reason might be a closed question in my question lists.
  • Not so constructive questions.

My ban was lifted after a week.

What I found during that time is, what you should do to lift your ban is:

  1. Edit your previous posts considering the comments to make it more constructive.
  2. If you have any closed posts, review those posts and then flag it for reopening.
  3. Don't delete your answers or any of the questions.
  4. Try to gain as much reputation as you can by answering others questions in a constructive way.
  5. Read guidelines and FAQs of Stack Overflow to write posts.
  6. Review and edit others posts to correct others mistakes.
  7. Do not serial-edit others post, unless you really found something valuable to change. You can get banned from editing too

At all, the whole ban thing works automatically, the system would be continuously looking for your reputation change and your ban would be lifted in a short time, if you could gain good reputation during this period.

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  • The only problem with that is that I tend to not get comments that say anything helpful, they just point me places I've already looked.
    – Azulflame
    Sep 14, 2012 at 13:01
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    What i have found in these days is that everything depends on how much reputation you gain. i editted my posts and reveiwed all, but it doesnt work to much extent. then i focused on gaining more and more reputation and the ban is lifted in quick times. So, i would suggest you to gain as much reputation by answering and editing others post . Sep 14, 2012 at 13:05
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    But do not serial-edit other's post, unless you really found something valuable to change. You can get banned from editing too.
    – JMax
    Sep 14, 2012 at 13:19
  • Thannks folk. that will add one more point in the to do list . consider this one also But do not serial-edit other's post, unless you really found something valuable to change. You can get banned from editing too. Sep 14, 2012 at 13:21
  • Really great, you learned from this experience and you are prepared to share the knowledge. It proves the system works. Nov 27, 2012 at 13:03
  • yep, my SO reputation could tell how much i learned from this experience(1K+ in 3 months). Nov 27, 2012 at 13:05
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    This is a superb answer; made moreso by it being from someone who has been through the process successfully. Nov 29, 2012 at 12:33
  • yes, the system works wonderfully. Nov 29, 2012 at 12:35
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    If you want renewed attention for your answer then trivial edit is not the way. Please don't make such trivial edits.
    – Himanshu
    Dec 3, 2012 at 6:23

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