11

Check out this question. It was asked on Stack Overflow proper, then migrated to Meta, with the owner's not only approval, but desire. The owner had been previously binned here on Meta, and the suspension is not up yet.

Unlike some activity from the owner, it is a legitimate Meta use. But is the ability to ask an intentional Meta question and get it successfully migrated a potential abuse of the binning system?

(Note: Again, that's a legitimate Meta request, I'm just asking about the loophole here.)

Edit

Looks like he's done it again, as of today.

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13

Well, as I see it, that's just a user request to be banned from Stack Overflow, too...

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  • Can I really only up vote once? – Jason Punyon♦ Jun 1 '10 at 23:58
  • lol that's cold :-) – Andy E Jun 2 '10 at 0:00
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    ...I'd laugh but he's not even worth laughing at anymore... – squillman Jun 2 '10 at 1:22
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    I don't know. Finding what appears to be a (formerly) valid loophole sounds like the kind of thing that the "hacker" badge is for. – devinb Jun 2 '10 at 8:55
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Interesting. I guess you could call it a loophole, but really a ban is more than just stopping a user from posting questions.

In this particular case, it's hardly a problem and I can't imagine a situation where this plays to a banned member's advantage. Further participation in the discussion, such as comments, follow-ups and voting would not be possible. It's also not guaranteed that your post will be migrated to meta, it could be closed, for instance.

A workaround? For posting meta-specific questions, yes. For everything else? I don't think so.

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    True. And again, in this case, it's an appropriate use. I also don't know what an answer to this would look like, other than maybe a mod shooting an e-mail? – John Rudy Jun 1 '10 at 23:21
  • @Dr. There's usually no reply necessary for retag requests, the status-completed or status-declined tags are applied accordingly. – Andy E Jun 1 '10 at 23:23
  • Actually banned users can do a few things, though I've never seen a list of what that is. I always assumed they could do whatever 1 rep users could do, but I guess not. – Lance Roberts Jun 1 '10 at 23:47
  • @Lance Roberts: The account is locked at 1 reputation, but you cannot ask or answer questions. At 1 reputation, there's not a whole lot else you can do that a guest on the sites can't. – Andy E Jun 1 '10 at 23:59
  • @Andy, ok, thanks, but I've seen banned users comment before, and didn't evan put an answer in on another question (his guide to SO exp), Evan's Glory – Lance Roberts Jun 2 '10 at 0:06
  • @Lance: I'm not really sure, I don't follow Evan's antics much (kind of a not feeding the trolls thing). He's not banned on SO, so he was able to comment there before the question was migrated. If you check out his profile, under the activity tab, you'll see that other activity took place before he was banned. – Andy E Jun 2 '10 at 0:10
  • @Lance: That answer was given 2 days before the question that got him banned, AFAIK. Like I said though, I'm not an Evan follower :-) – Andy E Jun 2 '10 at 8:37
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It is, and it isn't.

On the one hand, all the posts will get migrated here, if they legitimately belong here.

On the other hand, it's the same set of authorities on both sites, so if this kind of obvious abuse gets out of control, a user can be binned on both sites easily enough.

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1

I would think it's not ok, but that's just my opinion. I've seen people post on SO because they have so little rep on the appropriate site they can't include links or images like they want to, and they start the post with "Please migrate this to SU", and that seems to go over fine, but I would think ban evading is crossing the line somewhat.

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1

I think there needs to be a kind of policy of damnatio memoriae as this user is attaining a kind of herostratic fame and probably gets a kick out of seeing users on meta fuss over his antics.

I don't mean to attack you, @I miss my down votes, but I think this sort of behavior should just be flagged for moderators to note and attend to.

There's no question about it; that user's been around long enough to know what belongs on meta and what belongs on SO, so this isn't an accident.

But the more threads like this one pop up, the worse it will get. We just have to flag it, email a mod, and act like it never happened. Because he doesn't have to log in to see this thread, no? So he's gotten his fix for the day.

Again, not meant as an attack :)

(did I use "damnatio memoriae" right?)

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  • I didn't read your links, but this is an old post. Just got an update to remind the mods that they should consider action. And no offense taken; everyone is entitled to his opinion! – John Rudy Aug 17 '10 at 17:48
  • @I miss my downvotes - Ahhhh, I see; Jun 1st. My bad! – Richard JP Le Guen Aug 17 '10 at 19:01
  • No problema. :) – John Rudy Aug 18 '10 at 3:12

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