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I have been banned from Physics Stack Exchange, and I think it is mainly because of these two questions which were not received well. The thing is that for both these questions I have received hints from the comments section and I managed to work it out. What should I do about them? Would someone give me some advice as to how I should edit these questions? Or should I delete them? I joined Stack exchange as I am preparing for a very difficult entrance exam, the IITJEE on my own and I do not want to be banned. Is there anything I could do?

  1. A rod bent at right angle is placed on a rough horizontal cylinder as in figure, what is normal force at A and B?

  2. What will coefficient of restitution of circular wall be?

Also the following question has been downvoted and closed, if I delete it would it be a good thing? However it has two answers and I don't know if I am allowed to do so, or if I should.

  1. What is the velocity of the block B in the pulley system when it hits the pulley?
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    $\begingroup$ Deletion is not a good idea as it counts negatively against you. Part of it is that we don't like "How do I solve this problem" type questions. There is a JEE chat room you may be interested in. $\endgroup$
    – Kyle Kanos
    May 11, 2018 at 13:43
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks! Is there any way I can modify these questions to improve them? $\endgroup$
    – Hema
    May 11, 2018 at 13:49
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    $\begingroup$ That's kind of the tricky part: rather than asking about the method by which one solves the problem, ask about the specific physics concept that is preventing you from solving the problem on your own. $\endgroup$
    – Kyle Kanos
    May 11, 2018 at 13:51
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    $\begingroup$ I don't think there is much you can do about those questions, to be honest. The community doesn't want that kind of questions. Given your personal situation, it is hard to imagine that you would stop asking such questions. The question ban makes reviewers' life easier. $\endgroup$
    – AccidentalFourierTransform
    May 11, 2018 at 13:57
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    $\begingroup$ Hema, I added some more information to my answer - just wanted to make sure you saw it. $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    May 12, 2018 at 5:25

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Most of the advice we have about asking for help on homework or self-study questions, or other questions of a similar nature, is encapsulated in our homework policy post. So I'd suggest taking a look there.

Probably the main point you should take away, when it comes to improving your questions, is that when you have a homework/self-study/etc. problem, the question you ask on this site should not be the question asked in the problem itself. Similarly, don't ask things like "how should I start?" or "what should I do next?" or "what am I doing wrong? or "can someone explain this?" Those are all too vague and broad to be good questions for this site.

What we'd rather have you do is narrow the question down to one very specific issue that you want to know about, ideally something that other people might also be wondering about even if they're not working on the same problem you are.

You may find that some of the questions you want to ask while preparing for an exam like the JEE just aren't suitable for this site - that is, that you can't figure out any way to phrase the question in a way that meets the guidelines I mentioned. Sometimes that happens, and we accept it; this site is not trying to be a home for every physics-related question a person could possibly ask. The community maintains a (non-comprehensive) list of other sites where you might be able to find some help with things that aren't on topic here.

As far as deletion... the system only lets you delete your questions under certain conditions.

You can't delete your own question when it:

  • has an answer with upvotes (even if it has a net negative score)
  • has an accepted answer
  • has multiple answers (even if there are no upvotes)
  • has an answer with an awarded bounty

The moderators generally agree with the criteria used by the system to decide whether to show you a "delete" link at all, so our approach is that if you see the "delete" link there, feel free to use it. However, deleting posts will not help you get out of an automatic question ban. If you find yourself in that situation, I would advise against deleting your posts. Instead, focus on coming up with a good question to ask next time you get the chance to do so. If you have access to [chat], you can ask people there for advice on how to ask a good question.

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