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Hey guys I'm getting this error message when trying to post a question:

Sorry, we are no longer accepting questions from this account. 
See goo.gl/C1Kwu to learn more.

The thing is, I only have two questions in the negative which is why I think this ban is automatic and not a manual ban given to me by a user.

On of the -3 question, I asked a legitimate issue I had trying to learn about MySQL foreign key relationships. I showed what I tried, what I thought might work but didn't, and finally what error message I got. A good question, following the standard given in Jon Skeet's how to ask a question post.

On the other -3 question, I was downvoted again 3 times because it wasn't a "real question". I think it is a legitimate question because it's clear, concise and answerable. People just shouting "read the OpenGraph docs" aren't really helpful. Of course the screenshot is using the OpenGraph API, but I wanted to know what part of the API specifically referred to that functionality. Simple, short and answerable.

So those are the two offending questions I assume caused my auto-ban.

I thought the system would also weigh in the fact that I also answer questions and received upvotes on them, actually contributing to the site instead of just leeching.

How can I get unbanned?

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marked as duplicate by casperOne Oct 6 '12 at 2:41


Did you actually try going to the recommended site (goo.gl/C1Kwu) before posting here? –  Pops Oct 5 '12 at 22:34
Yes I read that: The only way for the ban to be lifted is for you to convince the community that they should give you another chance... So here I am. –  Serg Oct 5 '12 at 22:36
Fair enough. I didn't see anything in your question that indicated either that you had or hadn't, and in an astonishing number of cases, it turns out to be "hadn't." –  Pops Oct 5 '12 at 22:38
That's an interesting quotation, because there's actually nothing that the community can do about your ban. I suppose if you got a lot of community support, it might convince a staff member to unban you, but it's really ultimately the staffer's call and nobody else's. –  Pops Oct 5 '12 at 22:40
Looking at your posts; if you haven't deleted a lot I'd guess you're borderline and it won't take much to be unbanned. If you have deleted a lot of posts hope for a kindly SO moderator to come by and undelete for you... –  ben is uǝq backwards Oct 5 '12 at 22:41
I did have one issue where I wrote out a lengthy question, submitted and immediately after submitting the answer hit me. So I went back and deleted the question before anybody answered (it still had about 4 views). Somebody then tailgated me to another of my questions and left me a comment about how "I shouldn't deleted questions because he had an answer typed up." And I agree, I won't do that again. So yeah, I do have that one deleted question that might have caused an issue. –  Serg Oct 5 '12 at 22:43
As for your specific case, the first question looks okay, and I upvoted it, but the second one was closed rightfully (it's hardly a "specific programming problem"). –  Pops Oct 5 '12 at 22:43
@PopularDemand Not exactly true. If the community reviews his questions and either upvotes (or undownvotes) and/or reopens questions, then the automatic ban will be lifted (when the ban check script is run again) –  Lorem Ipsum Oct 5 '12 at 22:46
@yoda There is no script per se. It's a one-off check that happens when the user attempts to post a question. –  Anna Lear Oct 5 '12 at 23:24
@AnnaLear It was my understanding that the script runs again when the user attempts to post another question (perhaps the community folks have it on demand). If the conditions have changed by then (upvoted answers or downvotes removed, etc.), then the ban is lifted and they're allowed to post. If not, there's no way to "lift the ban" and it kinda becomes permanent –  Lorem Ipsum Oct 5 '12 at 23:30
@yoda Yeah, that's basically it. Although you can keep trying to post - there's no "lock in" like a certain number of tries after which the ban is permanent for sure. –  Anna Lear Oct 5 '12 at 23:32
Ok, then I think we agree... that is basically what I was trying to say :) –  Lorem Ipsum Oct 5 '12 at 23:32

1 Answer 1

up vote 8 down vote accepted

By every metric I can see, you're not currently blocked from posting questions.

So... congrats? :)

That said, your interpretation of "The only way for the ban to be lifted is for you to convince the community that they should give you another chance..." is somewhat literal. The idea, really, is to make edits to your posts and get the community to review them again that way (since every edit effectively bumps the question).

Either way, this approach clearly worked out for you. Enjoy, and keep the tips from that meta post as well as the How to Ask page to avoid getting blocked again in the future.

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