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I have, unfortunately, been put in a question ban. The good part, is that I know exactly why, and that this ban has pretty much forced me to read through many wiki posts, rules, FAQ's, and Jon Skeet's post. In the help center, I read:

How can I get out of a question ban?

The ban will be lifted automatically by the system when it determines that your positive contributions outweigh those questions which were poorly received.

So, I tried to make more positive contributions to the community by actively looking for questions to answer for a week or two straight, and trying to answer the ones that I could. Unfortunately, answering questions was not enough to lift the ban, so I read on––more wikis, more posts, more FAQ's, etc.

In my reading, I saw that a great way to get out of a ban, or to start the process of having it lifted, is to edit my questions that were received poorly/deleted. So, I went back to my old questions that I deleted and tried to find ways to improve them so that (a) they would be unique, well formed, and followed the rules and tips that I read, and (b) would be useful to future visitors. Sadly, I noticed that my questions are simply unredeemable: they were either too specific, or I had found the answer/solution since deletion.

My question applies to all sites which is why I posted it on meta SA: What else can be done to get out of a question ban––to "outweigh those questions which were poorly received" through "positive contributions"? Does getting reputation simple counteract the ban or something else altogether?

EDIT:

What can I do when getting "We are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account"? does not answer my question; this post says that I should edit my posts, as an important step, but as I said in my question, that is not really an option.

I suppose that what I am really asking, is if a ban is lifted when the reputation from positive contributions is greater than the reputation lost from negative ones.

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    "or I had found the answer/solution since deletion" How does that withhold you from undeleting them?
    – Simon Klaver
    Dec 27, 2015 at 19:57
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    @SimonKlaver, Undeleting the questions would not make much sense because they would just be marked as duplicates and get even more downvotes than before, locking me even farther in the ban.
    – Daniel
    Dec 27, 2015 at 19:59
  • @πάνταῥεῖ, I read through that entire post, and it did not answer my question. It said that a big thing that I should do is edit my questions, but, as I said in my question above, that isn't really an option.
    – Daniel
    Dec 27, 2015 at 20:04
  • There's also this: "If you are banned from asking questions, then writing a few quality answers that get upvoted might enable you to ask questions again."
    – yannis
    Dec 27, 2015 at 20:05
  • @Dopapp Well, it also says that you can try to lift the ban by giving positive contributions in form of well achieved answers. Anyhow, the exact algorithm isn't disclosed. Good luck.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Dec 27, 2015 at 20:06
  • @rene, Stack Overflow. I've been trying to answer questions to counter the ban
    – Daniel
    Dec 27, 2015 at 20:30
  • @rene, I deleted the negative question votes because (a) they could not help the community, and (b) they could only amass more down votes
    – Daniel
    Dec 27, 2015 at 20:33
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    @Dopapp "... what I am really asking, is if a ban is lifted when the reputation from positive contributions is greater than the reputation lost from negative ones ..." As mentioned, the exact algorithm isn't disclosed, and won't be for your request here.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Dec 27, 2015 at 21:19
  • @rene and until the bug will be fixed (if ever), any 10k user on SO.
    – Shadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry
    Dec 28, 2015 at 8:58
  • Above bug reported here: meta.stackexchange.com/q/271062/245360.
    – Patrick Hofman
    Dec 28, 2015 at 9:11

2 Answers 2

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Kudos on trying to discuss this nicely and reading everything, instead of just shouting and pointing fingers and rage quitting like many others.

I really wish I could bring good news, but I can't. As it stands, you made many mistakes (each downvoted question you deleted was such a mistake, and there are many) and now you pay the price.

Gaining reputation in other ways does help, but the formula is kept a secret on purpose. All in all, getting enough upvotes on answers would lift you out of the ban at some point, but where's this point nobody can tell exactly.

If you want a list of the questions you deleted yourself (thus can undelete) and want to try and improve, you can ask a moderator. That's the best way, though of course not perfect. (Nobody can guarantee you'll start getting upvotes after editing)

One more thing, sometimes SE employees help such cases by disassociating bad questions from the banned account. You can contact the team directly via "contact us" link in the footer, pledge your case, and hope for the best. Just be patient, if can take days, and more, to get response.

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Sadly, I noticed that my questions are simply unredeemable: they were either too specific, or I had found the answer/solution since deletion.

I would see that the question should be edited so that the quality of the entire post has been improved. Maybe the question itself cannot be fixed, but I am sure that are many other users that have commented on what you can improve on your post. When people say question, they mean the entire post 99% of the time.

Of course, you can only edit the questions that can be saved. Blatantly off-topic questions, spam questions, etc. can never be revived and be a good-quality question.

What can I do when getting "We are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account"?

Read the above link carefully and make sure you understand it thoroughly. It should be able to help you in some way and maybe you need to reread the post a few times as you seem confused. Focus more on the answer though... it is going to supply tons of info on what you need to know about auto bans and how to escape them.

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    If a question is blatantly off-topic, fundamentally unanswerable or a known duplicate, no amount of polishing the presentation is going to get people to upvote it.
    – Ilmari Karonen
    Dec 28, 2015 at 1:19

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