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I had a very difficult question that I urgently needed an answer to. It got buried very quickly.

  • Is there anyway to bump a question higher in the questions list?
  • How do I ask two related questions? Should I keep them in one question that would require two answers? Or should I split them up?

So I made a second question that linked back to the first, and it was marked as spam.

There was very little feedback on what I had done wrong, and the people who did comment were extremely impolite and unhelpful.

This is a great site, but if the community attitude continues to be so discouraging, you'll find that people will migrate to a site with a more welcoming attitude instead.

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  • 1
    Can you link to the question(s) you're talking about so we can give you informed answers?
    – Bill the Lizard
    Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 20:01
  • superuser : zillion try the newest questions ... mostly about linux and more middle to expert level but pretty easy questions ...
    – Anonymous
    Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 20:13
  • 3
    See: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7046/…
    – Shog9
    Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 20:40
  • 7
    And, FWIW... Unless you already know the answer to a question, you can't know that it's "easy". You can, however, know that it's hard to read because the author didn't put any effort into his writing. Generally, this is a pretty good indication that answering a question will be more trouble than it's worth...
    – Shog9
    Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 20:43
  • 5
    We owe you a great debt of gratitude, unknown. For some time now I have thought that Stack Overflow is a great success, but your insights have shown me how wrong we all are. We are awed and humbled by your observations. I will now retreat to a sad and lonely place to wait for this locked site to crash, while I drown in a river of my own tears.
    – ベレアー アダム
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 0:10
  • 2
    The more effort you put into writing your questions, the more effort other users will put into writing their answers. Try to provide details about how your code fits into your program, system environment, what you have tried already, any errors you are getting, what you were expecting to happen, what was causing the error/problem to happen etc.
    – David HAust
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 0:10
  • 1
    @David Haust: The users who come to meta for the first time are already very frustrated, otherwise they wouldn't be here. They deserve some slack otherwise you will just be confirming his assertions that the people here are rude and unwelcoming.
    – devinb
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 13:21
  • @devinb: you're becoming an apologist for rude/lazy newbies. The question as it stands now was hardly the "question" asked... You were a new user once too; when you ran into trouble, did you publish poorly-written rants attacking the site, or did you search for help? Given that the OP didn't link to any of his questions, even when asked nicely to do so, it's hardly unfair to assume that they were equally rude and difficult to parse...
    – Shog9
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 16:22
  • Heh... see also Diago's answer below. This does not appear to be an earnest, frustrated user looking honestly for answers.
    – Shog9
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 16:25
  • @Shog9: If there were more people acting like me, I'd probably take the otherside. I'm an unapologetic contrarian, and on meta I'm especially concerned with the lack of balance. The interesting dichotomy comes about when I'm on the side that users must show evidence that they tried to solve an issue, and I'm voted down. But when I advocate being patient with those who have trouble expressing themselves, I'm suddenly on the wrong side of that issue as well.
    – devinb
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 16:36
  • There is a distinct attitude of "If you don't already get it, then you never will". and I'll continue to fight against that, even if I'm alone on the issue. Hell, sometimes being alone is the most fun. Although, not usually.
    – devinb
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 16:38
  • @devinb - My only problem with your edit is that it does not convey in anyway what zillion was complaining about, and the issues was related to his account suspension. Had he read his e-mail all these issues and this post would have been completely unnecessary in the first place.
    – Diago
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 22:50
  • @Diago: I simply took the text of his complaint and translated it. Any information that was not in his question was omitted. As I mentioned to Shog, the validity of a question is not in any way tied to the user who asked it. So, I converted it into a bunch of valid questions and mentioned his frustration with his perceived treatment.
    – devinb
    Commented Sep 29, 2009 at 12:52
  • @Diago you're assuming he has a valid email address.
    – Brad Gilbert
    Commented Oct 5, 2009 at 0:42
  • (Though I doubt it's needed, as apparently the moderators have some note taking tools, but still for the archives just in case it helps: more frustration from the same user at the deleted superuser.com/questions/60086/dear-superzeros)
    – Arjan
    Commented Oct 25, 2009 at 11:55

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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2009-10-05: The user's account is no longer suspended. He was e-mailed with regards to this.

With regards to this user and the current account suspension.

These notes are taken from the Moderator annotations on the users account and has been ongoing since early September 2009. Also all actions where discussed with the complete SU moderator team before taking said actions.

On the 5th of September 2009 an e-mail was sent to the registered e-mail address, addressing the issue of multiple moderator flags by community members for the above user with regards to:

  • Questions unrelated to Computer Hardware and Software Troubleshooting
  • Asking numerous unrelated Discussion questions
  • Posting multiple answers to single questions
  • Referring to products or companies negatively
  • Flagging all questions and answers as Community Wiki

Numerous answers and questions had to be deleted due to the above, although in retrospect they should have been flagged as spam. No response was received to this e-mail.

On the 27th of September 2009 a second e-mail was sent informing the user of his 7 days account suspension due to continued abuse of the system, and being flagged again numerous times. The account was then put on 7 day suspension. No response was received on this e-mail. However I did happen to find this question today.

In both cases it was recommended that the user read the FAQ and also contact the moderator team should they not understand the reasons for the warning and subsequent suspension. The most likely reasons for the questions not being answered is due to the above issues and therefore the community is wary to answer questions, since most of them are flagged CW.

I will state again, as previously stated many times, if any other moderator feels that I have acted incorrectly and my reasons for my actions are invalid, they are welcome to override my decision. This has been done in the past and is the purpose of there being a moderator team.

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  • Has it been 2 weeks already?
    – random
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 9:26
  • No. I answered since I suspended the account. I am incognito.
    – Diago
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 9:31
  • None of this thread made any sense until you posted this trail.
    – random
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 10:31
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    +1 for transparency.
    – Weblog
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 14:12
  • 1
    @Welbog: Maybe I was wrong the other day. Maybe they can be taught.
    – Geoffrey Chetwood
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 15:34
  • 1
    when we don't know the website, we don't give our true email cause we don't want to be spammed, you should considerate adding a warning system on the website, how could I have know when your emails go directly to my spam email that I never have checked in years ???
    – Anonymous
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 20:05
  • 3
    @zillion. SO has a strict no spam policy. The only method of communication is e-mail. That is the process.
    – Diago
    Commented Sep 28, 2009 at 22:43
5

If you want your question to be seen again, go back and edit it to add more detail. If it's that important to you, you should have been working on it by yourself too and you have new research or information to add. Every edit will bump the question to the top of the page. Posting duplicate questions will get you blacklisted quickly.

Here is a much clearer way of saying it. (thanks @shog9)

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  • people can ask if they need more informations you know ... And it's hard to ask simple question with 10 lines of text ...
    – Anonymous
    Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 20:03
  • @unknown I don't understand what you mean. There's no practical limit to the length of a question on SO.
    – Rex M
    Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 20:07
  • I mean simple questions can't be a complex text ...
    – Anonymous
    Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 20:10
  • 3
    @unknown every question has research. You can come back and say "I tried x but it doesn't work." And then later "I tried y but I got this error". If you can't put that much effort into the question you can't expect anyone else to, and if your question doesn't have that kind of research then it's not appropriate for StackOverflow.
    – Rex M
    Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 20:14
  • locked mind as always , people can ask to know more ... open mind see that someone that ask a question on an high-level website or pretty unknown website has tried all the regular stuff like official documentation, wiki, forum and irc channel ...
    – Anonymous
    Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 20:25
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    No, it's not obvious that you've tried everything obvious. In particular, it's not clear what you deem to be obvious. Funny how so many people find it quite feasible to write a clear question which gets answers...
    – Jon Skeet
    Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 20:37
  • 4
    @unknown I'm having a hard time distinguishing between weak English skills and being obtuse... I think we'll be able to have a more constructive conversation if you keep that in mind.
    – Rex M
    Commented Sep 27, 2009 at 20:41

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