Add a Question Ban Meter in the profile page [duplicate]

Question

Background

I was recently banned from asking questions, and appealed my case here. As I think about my problems, I have begun to realize that I was never notified of the question-ban policy - neither were others like me. To remedy the situation, I propose a question ban meter in a user's profile, which shows how close they are to being banned. The meter would look somewhat like this:

_{(source: bbc.co.uk)}

New users would begin in the middle (where green and yellow meet.) Using the secretive algorithm, the users would then be able to see if they needed to improve questions (in the red) or if they should continue on their current path (in the blue).

This meter would also be used to help people who have been banned. Their pointer would show up to the right of the red, and as they gradually improved it would slide towards the meter until they were able to ask questions again.

Uses

1. Users in the blue could give up their "question expertise" to help question banned users. This would add a small amount of user input on the ban algorithm, effectively adding much needed community moderation.

   • Alternative Idea: These "trusted users" (different from [this][4]) would be able to turn down the severity of the ban from permanent to temporary. The notches would be as follows:

     • Vote to have this ban reviewed (10 "Question Points")
     • One Month Ban (50 "Question Points")
     • One Week Ban (100 "Question Points")
     • One Day Ban (250 "Question Points")
     • Unbanned (500 "Question Points")

   • Also, users who were able to do this could pool their points together - this would make it even more of a community moderation process.

2. People who have a good question reputation would show up further on the list of unanswered questions - this would mean that Stack Overflow visitors could find their answers quicker. It would also act as another incentive for people to ask thoughtful questions.

3. This would help new users realize that there is a question ban in effect, potentially lowering the number of ban appeals on the Meta Stackoverflow Website.

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Please let me know if you think that this is a good idea (or not) in comments and answer sections.

Edit

Many users have said that Stackoverflow could be "gamed" if this were to go into effect. Before you say that, please try to answer these questions:

1. What do you mean by "gamed"? If "gamed" means using the system to make sure that questions are not downvoted, or to realize when to focus more on the question... then that is not "gaming" the system - it is using it in the appropriate manner.

2. This is somewhat unrelated to the origninal question, but they are definitely intwined: What is the reason for the secrecy of the algorithm? If people knew what it was, most people would try to avoid doing things that would hurt themselves instead of using it to somehow "ruin" the experience for others.

Answer 1

I have had the bad experience of being banned on Meta. I, too, didn't know that my actions could lead to limitations; I was unaware of the fact that deleting questions, or getting too many negative votes, or some kind of combination of those could lead to a ban.

I found the reasons for my ban afterwards, so from my point of view, and my personal opinion is that the only need is a simple, one time warning, before the ban, with links to the questions and answers here on meta about the ban risk.

If a user knows that he or she is on the wrong track, then this is enough to change course.

The meter that you suggest can lead some people to try cheating the system and to continue doing things that will not help the community in general.

Answer 2

The inherent problems with a ban meter preclude it from being a useful heuristic for anyone.

Some of the problems include:

• There are multiple criteria that could cause someone to be question banned (from experience -- I don't actually know what the algorithm is). It could be a ratio of deleted questions to undeleted questions ; closed questions to open questions; downvoted questions to upvoted questions; number of answers to any of the above, or even some of those metrics being compared against others. That makes it really hard for anyone to have a useful linear metric. If anything, it'd probably be three or more sliders -- and that would defeat the purpose of a secret ban algorithm.

• it optimizes for the wrong thing. The goal is to have users ask quality questions. If a user doesn't want to take the time to put effort into their question; but would rather game some algorithm, then that defeats the purpose. Any guidepost to the user should include encouraging them to ask better questions. "Oh no, I'm an orange! How do I improve? Maybe I should delete this question?" "Oops. Now I'm question banned."

I do agree that users get surprised by the Question ban algorithm, but that's at least in part their fault. If they had taken the time to research their issue, post all relevant research, and phrase their question well, they would not have been question banned.

The way to fix this is not to add another metric.

---

Reading my own post, I realize it may sound a bit harsh.

I hate that users get question banned from the perspective of, "Hey, let's help out people who have problems." That's where the question ban sucks. From the "Hey, let's make sure we have a high quality Q&A site" perspective, the question ban is absolutely necessary.

No matter how much we try to educate or help programmers to understand that we can't always give them fish, there will always be programmers who want to do that. I mean, think about the phrase, "Teach a man to fish" -- it's probably an ancient chinese proverb. That means in thousands of years, people have been trying to get others to do their work for them.

That's not what we're here for. I've got plenty of my own work to do without writing someone else's code for them. I will, however, share my knowledge -- but I'm going to expect the person on the other side to put some effort forward as well.

That's what banned questioners lack in their posts: effort. If you've got a better way to encourage effort than cutting people off who aren't giving any, then I'm all about it. Just remember that there's an entire community who will be affected by any decision you make.