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I have written only twice to Contact Support in the 3 years, 4 months I have joined Stack Exchange. The first reply came within three days, it was an enquiry about a third party. I was satisfied by the response, and decided to drop the matter. But I am still waiting for a reply to my second enquiry. I think it has been over a week now. This time I was asking about myself.

I am currently serving a year long suspension on English Language & Usage for breaking the rules. I am not disputing the fact I broke the rules.

In order to avoid speculation, I will state what the offenses were. I opened two new accounts while serving the first (24 Aug '16) and second suspension (Aug 31 '16). While I was using my new second account, I gained a fair bit of rep, and I upvoted one of my answers on the suspended account. That was wrong, and I deeply regret doing that.

The second suspension was for circumventing the first suspension, there was no mention whatsoever about sockpuppets. In my reply to the second suspension, I TOLD the mods I had upvoted an answer belonging to the suspended account, and that I accepted their verdict. Not long after, I willfully opened a third, and illegal, account. That little act of rebellion cost me a year's suspension.

To be absolutely clear, I am not asking for the suspension to be lifted, I accept their verdict. But there are a number of issues which have not been clarified, and I would appreciate some answers, a discussion, a meeting of minds, call it what you will.

Obviously, I cannot ask over at EL&U meta because I am banned from there. It is pointless my asking on English Language Learners meta because they would not understand the situation, and the reason(s) why I flouted the rules.

I cannot use chat on EL&U, and recently I discovered to my chagrin, neither in ELL. The main site is EL&U which means chat at ELL is off bounds.

In fact one of queries to CS specifically mentioned this issue.

EDIT
I have since learned that there is only one main (parent) site, which is Stack Exchange, and all the other SE sites are sister sites. As a result, I am to all intents and purposes, banned from using chat in all eight communities which I am a member of.

In addition, the mods on EL&U have chosen not reply to my message, when they notified me that I was be suspended for a year on September 7th. But I have yet to receive any official response to my message dated 10th September. If they had done so, I would have enquired about the two or three issues I brought to CS's attention.

Finally, I have never acted like a ‘jerk’ in the 3 years and 4 months I have been a member. But I suppose you could say my opening two new accounts was ‘jerkish’ behaviour. So be it.

In conclusion, how long should I wait before Contact Support replies?


UPDATE

On 30 Sep I received an email of acknowledgement from Contact Support. But I have yet to hear any news from them about my queries. Albeit I have since discovered the reason why I cannot use chat anywhere, with the sole exception of Stackoverflow and SE meta.

I really don't know how to interpret this prolonged silence. But considering the amount of time that has lapsed, my hope is, at the very least, I won't receive a one-line message informing me that they found no support for my reservations.

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    Opening another account to get around a ban was what you did wrong, not voting for your own answer (that just makes it worse). You say you can't bring up your queries on ELU or ELL meta, can't you bring hem up here?
    – Cai
    Sep 25, 2016 at 12:57
  • @Cai Well if absolutely necessary, but it might cost me a suspension. The issue is personal. Sep 25, 2016 at 13:03
  • If the site moderators decided you are not welcome on the site any more, Stack Exchange team/staff can't really help you. They will not, and should not, force the moderators to do something against their will. That said, on rare cases emails do get lost, so you can try and ping a CM directly either via email (many CM's publish their emails on their profiles) or in chat, e.g. Tavern. (One ping, either way - no response will probably mean they got nothing to say.) Sep 25, 2016 at 13:22
  • And as for "acting like a jerk", that's not true. Bypassing suspension by opening new accounts is exactly like escaping from prison. Nothing more, nothing less. You can enjoy the freedom while it lasts, but if you get caught, expect more time in prison, and better security. Sep 25, 2016 at 13:24
  • @ShadowWizard OK, does that include my email to Contact Support? Could I least get a copy back of the email I wrote? Can I write and ask them for that? I didn't think that I wouldn't get a reply from them. Sep 25, 2016 at 13:24
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    @ShadowWizard thank you for your patience but the "email" I sent to CS was written in the open window box. I have no record of it in my "sent mail". I did not delete it. Are you saying that CS might never respond? I call it an email, but it was a letter written in a box "Please describe your problem*. I don't know how else to describe it. Sep 25, 2016 at 13:30
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    I'm afraid there's no fixed time range. One week is reasonable enough though, my advice is writing email directly to [email protected] and gently asking if they got your previous request, giving your nick and profile URL on the site where you sent the "contact us" form from. Sep 25, 2016 at 13:44
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    Go ahead, I stand behind my advice (but again, don't send more than one email) - and I'm afraid I got no real authority here, by all means I'm in the same level/position as you. Ordinary user. Sep 25, 2016 at 13:51
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    I have a problem with the jail analogy, which seems very neat and tidy, and I realised what it is. Shouldn't defendants be able to defend themselves before being sentenced? Sep 25, 2016 at 14:59
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    Your request was assigned to someone for review on Wednesday. As Monica explains, complicated matters do take a bit more time to look at, but it is still there and hasn't been ignored. Also keep in mind that most of us do not look through or think about these requests over the weekend.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Sep 25, 2016 at 17:17
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    @animuson usually there is automated response like "We got your request and will handle it shortly" - any reason SE doesn't have such a response? Sep 25, 2016 at 17:37
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    @ShadowWizard They cause a lot of problems that we don't want to deal with. The email field is free form - you can type anything you want there, which opens the door to a) people entering fake emails and us getting a ton of bounceback notifications to sift through and b) people entering other users' emails and annoying them with "your message was received" emails. Among other things, we decided that an automated response upon receipt just wasn't worth the minimal benefit it gives to users.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Sep 25, 2016 at 17:43
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    @animuson fair enough, so what about an email when the request is being assigned? (i.e. confirmed to be actual valid request from actual user) Sep 25, 2016 at 17:46
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    @ShadowWizard Sounds like something we could easily do. I'll bring it up at our next meeting.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Sep 25, 2016 at 18:00
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    @animuson awesome, thanks. Want me to start a feature request here, or leave it away from the spotlights? Sep 25, 2016 at 18:01

1 Answer 1

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Response time varies a lot, based on:

  • How complicated the situation is.
  • Whether anybody can handle it or it requires specific expertise. (For example, only some team members can make database modifications.)
  • Load.

I've had responses in a day or two, and I've had issues that took a couple weeks to resolve. If your request was very specialized or complicated, I'd give it a little more time before worrying. If it was routine and you're concerned that it just might have gotten lost, then (as Shadow Wizard suggested in comments), you can send email to [email protected] to inquire. It will probably help if you tell them on which site you submitted the support request.

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