1

I am quoting from this:

If you really, really think the question ban is an error, then email the team directly at the address provided at the bottom of every page. But note that Stack Overflow alone gets more than 3,000 questions per day, so reactivation of banned accounts is not a high priority.

As the system may be wrong about banning/blocking user, it would be a positive step to make a special email for these kind of users, to inquire about their situation, and reactivate/unblock them immediately if the system got it wrong. You may say there is already [email protected], I am with you in this, except they don't give a priority to such kinds of messages, as they state in the wiki.

5
  • 6
    Improving the quality of existing questions or answering other people's questions doesn't at all come to mind?
    – random Mod
    Commented Apr 21, 2011 at 17:08
  • @random We are here talking about victim users not about a user banned/blocked after bunch of edited questions.
    – SIFE
    Commented Apr 21, 2011 at 17:22
  • 2
    Vampires are not victims unless they want to put on eyeliner
    – random Mod
    Commented Apr 21, 2011 at 17:23
  • @random well, to be fair, this user looks like an edge case. His questions aren't of the entirely clueless variety that usually leads to a ban
    – Pekka
    Commented Apr 21, 2011 at 17:25
  • 3
    But @SIFE be it fair or not, extra attention for banned users simply isn't going to happen. The best you can do is fire an E-Mail at [email protected], plead a good case, and wait
    – Pekka
    Commented Apr 21, 2011 at 18:19

4 Answers 4

8

There isn't email support because Stack Overflow is really big, and dealing with this issue isn't prioritized.

And why should it be? It's a 'heaven-helps-those-that-help-themselves' situation.

If you want to get unbanned, your best bet is a combination of:

  1. Improving the quality of your existing questions.
  2. Answering other people's questions and getting upvoted for it.

In short: Give Back to the Community.

4
  • Yes. There are plenty of caveats: We don't know the formula, so that may not work -- but to be honest, if doing those two things doesn't get you unbanned, then nothing will. Commented Apr 21, 2011 at 17:26
  • I joined to stackoverflow because its a community, every one have to make its effort, as I am here asking questions I am also trying to answer.
    – SIFE
    Commented Apr 21, 2011 at 17:35
  • 2
    Can you actually "improve the quality of your existing questions" if your banned?
    – mxmissile
    Commented Apr 21, 2011 at 18:33
  • @mxmissile That's a great question, and one I don't have the answer to. However, SIFE should be able to let us know whether he's been able to edit an existing question. If he has, then it's possible. Commented Apr 21, 2011 at 18:40
8

There isn't a separate email .. because it would go to the same people. The people who are able to fix that situation are the same whether I create a [email protected] email address or not. So creating another email wouldn't really change the priority that this situation would be handled at.

3
  • 1
    Make this email managed by moderator's.
    – SIFE
    Commented Apr 21, 2011 at 18:21
  • 5
    @SIFE i'm pretty sure only devs can revoke a system ban
    – Zypher Mod
    Commented Apr 21, 2011 at 18:25
  • Actually, it could allow these requests to be further de-prioritized ;-)
    – SamB
    Commented May 15, 2011 at 22:54
3

That excerpt from the FAQ intended to repeat the team's statement on the matter, which is linked in that FAQ too:

By the time this limiter reaches its threshold, they've had many chances to "get it right", and have consistently failed.

At this point, based on question volume -- almost 3k questions per day -- I have absolutely no problem discarding a few percent of what is historically known to be the most problematic content before it enters our system.

So, the FAQ is not trying to say that emails are not read, but just that the team (and I guess most of the community) doesn't want to spend much time on these cases. Another email address won't change that.

Incidentally, I changed that text into the following, still linking to the same source:

But note that Stack Overflow alone gets more than 3,000 questions per day, so a few rejected questions won't be missed. Therefore, reactivation of banned accounts is not a high priority.

-1

They definitely should have an email for those kind of situations, though I've never had a problem using the normal Team email.

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