Is “You have reached your question limit” the same as being banned?

Question

I saw Question ban without any reason (after long awaited ban lift...), and the issue he went through is similar to mine.

I posted a total of seven questions in superuser.com: Two of these have one upvote each, and there are no downvotes. I have no deleted questions.

For some reason I was banned after my last question on Dec. 28th. I'm trying to figure out why, but I don't have a clue.

Just wanted to know the reason, and if there's any way I can be unbanned.

Thanks.

Answer 1

You are currently blocked from asking questions.

To remove the block you need to improve your existing questions and write good quality answers.

Please read What can I do when getting “We are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account”?:

Before you do anything else, fix your existing posts! As noted above, down-votes cast by the rest of the community factor into the ban - so the single best thing you can do to get it lifted is to address any objections raised by others. Were your past questions unclear? Did they fail to show any effort on your part? Poorly worded, titled, formatted, and overly long or short? Then fix them!

If you are banned from asking questions, then writing a few quality answers that get upvoted might enable you to ask questions again.

---

I was banned after my last question on Dec. 28th

This is incorrect. You have asked 5 questions since Dec 28th. They were all deleted by you.

• You can normally see your recently deleted (in the last 60 days) questions by clicking the "Deleted recent questions" link at the bottom of the "questions" tab in your user profile.

• Unfortunately all of your deleted questions are older than 60 days so you cannot see them.

Summary:

• You have posted 15 question in total

• There are 7 questions, with a total of 3 upvotes and 1 downvote

• There are 8 deleted questions, with a total of -5 downvotes

• This makes your total score -3 as deleted questions count towards a question block.

Answer 2

Automated bans cannot be removed from your account by a moderator or Stack Exchange employee.

You do not appear to have been manually banned, nor suspended, by a moderator.

Therefore, the only way to post new questions again is to fix the ones you have already asked to get more upvotes/attention.

Your non-deleted questions:

• Did WIndows 10 just delete Windows.Old? -- is a decent question. It seems to be suffering from the symptom of "nobody cares about this question enough to upvote it".
• From beginner, extend coverage with router or extenders? -- also a pretty decent question; the diagram is helpful to anyone seeking to produce an answer. Unfortunately, the scope of your question is huge; probably too huge for a Q&A. You're saying "Here's my problem; solve it for me", instead of saying "Here's my problem; here's what I've tried (or investigated) already; how can I bridge the gap?". Since you haven't shown any research effort of your own, that's a sign that the question needs to be improved (specifically, narrow down ideas such as whether you are absolutely married to having Wi-Fi or if you can live with Ethernet; for example, if you have mobile devices like an iPad that need to get on the network, that would be a convincing argument against only using Ethernet, at least in some rooms.)
• Knowing if router is actually working as bridge? -- is kind of an "X/Y problem" (you asked for X, but you actually needed to ask Y), as the upvoted answer suggests. So this question needs a lot of work.
• https://superuser.com/a/1143322/144607 -- a very "localized" question (everything about it is specific to some two particular products), which used to be a valid close vote reason on Super User. I don't see anything particularly wrong with it, but again, this isn't going to easily attract upvotes since it's such an edge case of your particular situation.
• Can Wi-Fi router pick up signal wirelessly, similar to extender? -- Seems okay. A good, generally useful piece of information is provided in the answer to clear up your question. Others might have the same question, google it, and find your question -- this is the hallmark of a good question, as others might find it useful in the future.
• LAN cable for connecting modem to router? -- Also okay, as indicated by the +1 score.
• Install VPN software Arris/Motorola svg6582 modem? -- I upvoted this one when I answered it, so obviously I don't think it's a terrible question.

I can't see your deleted questions, but since many of them seem to be downvoted, that's more the reason why you've been question banned. Your +0 questions don't really count against you, but in a few cases there are ways you could improve them to get upvotes. In other cases, the fact that your questions are so specific (and in some cases, with so little research effort on your part) will tend to keep them from getting upvotes.

And no, I won't go and upvote all your questions that I think are useful, because that would bias the process, and would be construed by the system as serial upvoting.

Answer 3

This isn't necessarily the same as the question ban described in that MSO question or this MSE FAQ. It could be a shorter rolling rate limit. On the plus side, it's definitely not a manually moderator-imposed suspension, as evidenced by your being able to post here. I believe only moderators can determine for certain the specific type of automated block.

I checked the vote split on your questions and found that a few of them have a single downvote each (though balanced by an upvote), so the community's reactions have been mixed. Additionally, as noted in the comments, you do have a handful of deleted questions, which though easy to forget about, do count against you.

Questions are resources that can be depleted. I'd suggest going over that one big FAQ about quality-induced bans. Most importantly, polish up your existing questions where possible. Even while you're under a question block, you can still contribute by answering questions.

Another relevant MSE: The Complete Rate-Limiting Guide.