Questions tagged [support]
Use this tag for requests for assistance with tools and other features on the Stack Exchange Network. This includes understanding how features work and why they work that way, or how to better use them.
7,318
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How does the bounty system work?
It's possible to offer and award bounties of reputation on questions.
What is a bounty?
How can I find questions that have a bounty attached?
How do I start a bounty? When can I start a bounty?
Why ...
585
votes
1
answer
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How does "Reputation" work?
On Stack Exchange, users may gain a certain level of reputation.
What does reputation do?
How can a user gain or lose reputation?
See also:
What is reputation? How do I earn (and lose) it? in the ...
290
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What can I do when getting "We are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account"?
If you are reading this, you may have been affected by one of our post quality bans. If so, it is important that you read the following information to understand what has happened and how to regain ...
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What are the badges I can earn on each site, and what are the exact criteria for earning each badge?
Formerly List of all badges with full descriptions.
What are badge name's requirements?
Why didn't I get badge name (right now)?
Which badges can I earn multiple times?
Jump to:
Question Badges
...
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votes
76
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The Many Memes of Meta
Catchphrases and concepts that spread from person to person are known as memes, which, courtesy the Internet, can now explode across the Earth like a highly contagious virus (hence "going viral&...
519
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1
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How does deleting work? What can cause a post to be deleted, and what does that actually mean? What are the criteria for deletion?
What circumstances can cause a question or answer to be deleted, and what does that actually mean?
How can a post be deleted?
When can't I delete my own post?
Can I still see my post even after it's ...
698
votes
1
answer
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How do comment @replies work?
How do the comment replies (aka "pinging users") work?
Who can I send an @reply to?
How do I respond to a specific user when entering my comment?
Will they be notified?
What do people mean ...
642
votes
273
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Formatting Sandbox
Notes:
Answers will occasionally be moved to the Sandbox archive when there are too many of them. When using them to report bugs, keep an eye on the post.
You may also want to take a look at the ...
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FAQ for Stack Exchange sites
Community FAQ
For sites in the Stack Exchange 2.0 network
To see a list of commonly used words and phrases, see the glossary.
For official guidance from Stack Exchange, visit the Help Center.
Asking ...
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What are "Community Wiki" posts?
Some questions and answers are marked Community Wiki and are owned by a community wiki user:
(In fact, this very question is one of them)
Why have Community Wiki posts?
How do Community Wiki posts ...
313
votes
1
answer
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How do suggested edits work?
When clicking "edit" I see:
Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed.
We welcome edits that make the post easier to understand and more valuable for readers. Because ...
734
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1
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How do I get attention for one of my own questions without a good answer?
I asked a question almost as soon as I got my account. I got a few decent answers, but none of them helped solve my problem. The question has long since become buried by newer questions, and there's ...
571
votes
1
answer
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What is serial voting and how does it affect me?
I just noticed that I lost a bunch of points from my reputation score, and I used the "reputation" tab on my user profile page to try and track down the cause.
During my investigation, I noticed ...
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1
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How does accepting an answer work?
What does it mean to accept an answer?
How do I accept an answer, and what are the rules?
Can I accept my own self-answer?
What are the reputation benefits?
Which answer should I accept?
Should I ...
810
votes
15
answers
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Recent feature changes to Stack Exchange
This is an unofficial list/changelog of new features and various changes to Stack Overflow and the Stack Exchange network.
It is maintained by the community, while a Stack Exchange employee changes ...
178
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1
answer
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How can one link / merge / combine / associate two accounts / users? (Anonymous / unregistered / cookie, or Google / Facebook / registered)
I accidentally posted a question without being logged in. Is there a way to associate that question with my account?
Return to FAQ Index
For more information, visit "I accidentally created two ...
218
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1
answer
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How do comments work?
Across the Stack Exchange network you may leave comments on a question or answer.
How do comments work?
What are comments for, and when shouldn't I comment?
Who can post comments?
Who can edit ...
377
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2
answers
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Database schema documentation for the public data dump and SEDE
Stack Exchange releases "data dumps" of all its publicly available content roughly every three months via archive.org, and also makes that information queryable over the Internet at the ...
614
votes
1
answer
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What is syntax highlighting and how does it work?
I noticed that sometimes my code gets highlighted in different colors when rendered.
What is syntax highlighting?
How does it work?
Why isn't my code being highlighted correctly?
How do I report a ...
223
votes
1
answer
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views
Which browsers are officially supported, and what else do I need?
Which browsers are officially supported by Stack Exchange?
Also, what else is needed in order to use every feature of the site?
Return to FAQ index
396
votes
1
answer
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How do I format my code blocks?
How do I post text so that it is formatted as code?
What do I need to do so that my code shows up properly — not escaped or removed — when posted? And how to get the correct syntax ...
771
votes
1
answer
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Which tools and technologies are used to build the Stack Exchange Network?
What tools and technologies are used to build the Stack Exchange Network?
See also: Which tools and technologies are used to build Data Explorer?
Return to FAQ index
365
votes
1
answer
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Why do I need 50 reputation to comment? What can I do instead?
Users with less than 50 reputation points cannot write comments on questions and answers that they don't own.
Why does this limit exist?
But I want to contribute now. What should I do instead?
But I ...
210
votes
1
answer
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What is a "closed" or "duplicate" question?
Questions can be closed or marked as duplicates.
What does it mean for a question to be "closed"?
What does it mean for a question to be marked as a "duplicate"?
Who can close a ...
451
votes
1
answer
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A site (or scraper) is copying content from Stack Exchange. What should I do?
Since day one of Stack Overflow, all content posted on Stack Exchange sites by their users (i.e. you wonderful people) has been provided to the whole universe under the CC BY-SA license. For my fellow ...
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Can I answer my own questions, even if I knew the answer before asking?
I might want to answer my own question because:
I arrived at a solution before there were any other correct answers or I like mine better, can I still answer my own question?
I have a folder with ...
284
votes
1
answer
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How can I delete my account?
How can I delete my Stack Exchange account(s)? Also,
What happens to my content? Can I request it be deleted as well?
What if I'm suspended, rate-limited, or banned from posting questions or answers?
...
128
votes
1
answer
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How can I propose a new site?
I have an idea or subject that should have a Q&A, and want to propose a new site. How can I do this?
Related: What makes a winning site proposal?
Return to FAQ index
340
votes
1
answer
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views
The Complete Rate-Limiting Guide
I noticed that I can only perform certain actions such as commenting a finite number of times in a given period of time. Obviously, rate limiting is in place to prevent accidental misuse or ...
312
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2
answers
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What are the “spam” and “rude or abusive” (offensive) flags, and how do they work?
When flagging, there are two special case options: spam and rude or abusive.
What is spam, and when should I flag content as such?
What is considered offensive, rude or abusive content?
How does the ...
270
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1
answer
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How do question bookmarks work?
What does bookmarking a question mean?
How do you bookmark a question?
Do users get updates on their bookmarked questions?
Are my bookmarks publicly visible?
How do you see your own bookmarks?
How do ...
79
votes
5
answers
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What is Meta Stack Exchange, and how does it work?
Meta Stack Exchange seems to have different rules and user behavior than the "regular" Stack Exchange sites. How is it different?
Individual questions answered below:
What do votes mean ...
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votes
1
answer
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What HTML tags are allowed on Stack Exchange sites?
Stack Exchange sites use Markdown for questions and answers. Per the Markdown specification, intermixing HTML and Markdown tags is allowed, but not all the HTML tags are allowed, to avoid XSS.
Which ...
217
votes
1
answer
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How do I change my login provider(s)?
I no longer use the service that I originally used to register, and would like to change the service I use to log in, or at least add a second account.
Is this possible? How do I change my login ...
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What is migration and how does it work?
I posted a question which was closed as off-topic and it seems like it could fit on another site in the network. How can I go about moving it there?
What is migration?
When can a question be migrated,...
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1
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How do "badges" work?
What are badges?
How do users get badges?
How can users get tag badges?
Can badges be lost/revoked/taken away after they are awarded? If so, how and when?
How can I suggest a new badge?
For more ...
374
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1
answer
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What are review tests (audits) and how do they work?
I recently received this rather amusing message while reviewing a user's first post:
Congratulations!
This was only a test, designed to make sure you were paying attention. This post
has already been ...
221
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1
answer
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What can I do when getting “This question body does not meet our quality standards”?
While trying to ask a question, I got the error message
This question body does not meet our quality standards. Please make sure that it completely describes your problem - including what you have ...
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Stack Exchange Glossary - Dictionary of Commonly-Used Terms
What are the common phrases, words, abbreviations that are used on Stack Overflow, Server Fault, Super User, Meta Stack Overflow, and the other Stack Exchange sites?
This is meant to be a very quick ...
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How does comment voting and flagging work?
Comments can now be upvoted and flagged. How do those features work?
Do users get rep for their upvoted comments? Do upvoted comments have any effect on comment sorting? And can users see their own ...
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Someone flagged my question as already answered, but it's not
I asked a question regarding a very specific feature of a program and whether or not it works with a larger program. Within hours someone had marked it with "This question may already have an answer ...
user232247
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What is a historical lock, and what is it used for?
Historical locks are sometimes applied to questions.
What is a historical lock?
What is the purpose of a historical lock?
How are questions affected by historical locking?
When is it appropriate to ...
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What is a “protected” or "highly active" question?
Questions can be protected (i.e. marked "highly active").
What does it mean for a question to be protected?
Why are some questions protected?
Who can protect and unprotect questions?
Who can answer a ...
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What is the association bonus, and how does it work?
I was just awarded +100 reputation on all of my Stack Exchange accounts.
What is this bonus for? It simply says "Association Bonus" on my reputation overview.
Also:
What privileges does the ...
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How does duplicate closing work? When is a question a duplicate, and how should duplicate questions be handled?
Questions can be closed as duplicates.
When are two questions considered duplicates?
Which question is the duplicate?
It's a duplicate. What do I do?
Should I edit the question?
Should I answer it?
...
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How can I report bugs with or request features for the Stack Exchange mobile apps?
I'm using the official Stack Exchange mobile app for iOS or Android, and
My app crashed!
It doesn't look good on my new smartphone.
It won't run after I updated my device.
I noticed another bug.
I ...
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What can I do if I'm the victim of serial downvoting? [duplicate]
While browsing Stack Overflow, I noticed that I lost a lot of reputation:
Is this serial downvoting? Will it be corrected by a rep-recalculation? How often are those done?
Here's a second ...
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How do I audit my reputation?
If I am concerned that my reputation score is incorrect, how can I audit it, or get a report of a detailed breakdown of my reputation?
Return to FAQ index
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1
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Who is on the Community Management Team, and what does it do?
The members of the Community Management Team (sometimes referred to as the Community Team or CMs) are employees of Stack Exchange the company, but not all SE employees are Community Management Team ...
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How does accept rate work? [duplicate]
What is accept rate?
Why doesn't accept rate always appear?
How is the accept rate calculated?
What does "accepting an answer" mean? How do I do it?
Related: How does accepting an answer work?