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I was about to ask a question, here on Meta SE, when I was slapped with the above warning. I went into a state of shock and "before I knew it" I had posted a completely different and obviously self-defeating question.

I thought -- and have only just realized, incorrectly so -- that I was being black-listed system-wide. (I just now went to various "main" sites to which I belong and, even on a site at which one of my few questions was ill-received, I am not given any such warning/slap.)

Thus, I ask:

  1. Can you make the warning a little less confrontational, so it has the desired effect yet in a kinder, gentler manner?

  2. Can you make the warning point to, or somehow list, the questions which were poorly judged -- as Shog has done below?

  3. Can you make it clear that the warning only applies to this (or whichever) site and in no way is a reflection on contributions made on other sites?

I sincerely believe this "feature" needs some tempering.

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    Note: the question is now considerably different from its original incarnation!
    – Martin F
    Commented Mar 21, 2015 at 23:56

1 Answer 1

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This is your question history here on Meta Stack Exchange:

That's one positively-received question, followed by two duplicates - the last downvoted and deleted.

The trend is not... positive. Hence the warning - the system's trying to tell you that you might want to try a different tactic.

Which... I guess you sorta did, but, I don't think this is gonna help.

Maybe have a nice cup of tea before you post your next question?

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    Thanks, Shog. I've now slept on it and had my cup of tea, literally! I strongly suggest that telling someone they have a poor question history, based on only two out of three well-meaning attempts, is the wrong way to go about things and will lead to self-fulfilling prophesies --that the likes of Lightness thrive on-- and a lot of ill-feeling. I believe that over a few years i've made a contribution to the SE family and went into a state of shock and despair when faced with what still appears to be unfair criticism. It could have killed me, literally. (Depression can be fatal.)
    – Martin F
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 14:42
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    We resisted adding those warnings for a long, long time @martinf - for exactly this reason. Eventually, we had to accept that not giving folks some sort of warning was doing more harm than good - still, it remains a trade-off. But with changes now in the pipeline, we may be able to drop some of them or adjust the thresholds at which they appear.
    – Shog9
    Commented Mar 20, 2015 at 14:46
  • Why was the 3rd deleted? I thought there was a policy not to delete duplicates (to increase a topic's reach). Was there even a warning given to me? How do i improve a deleted question?
    – Martin F
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 15:52

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