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A moment ago, I wanted to ask a question on this SE about the amount of energy in human blood, but it warned me that I'm in risk of no longer being able to ask questions on this account due to a large amount of low-quality questions.

Given that I've only asked 2 questions on here so far, I find this extremely weird. While it's true that both of my questions were problematic, I'm surprised that I'm already getting this warning, considering I also have an accepted answer with 2 upvotes, and have 2 upvotes on each of my 2 questions. It even says it right on the question bans FAQ:

One or two bad posts will not cause you to be blocked from using the site.

I'm considering deleting both of these questions, not to try and circumvent this ban, but because of self-curation: if these questions are bad enough to warrant closing and don't have an answer, they're not really a good fit for this website. the problem is that the duplicate question already has an answer (which fits more as a comment, I think), which means that deleting it warns me that it ALSO counts against my questions ban.

I don't know why I'm getting these results. I find it disheartening to see that a mere 2 lower-quality questions can get me into this trouble, even though the FAQ explicitly mentions this shouldn't be the case. Should I start to get worried?

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  • $\begingroup$ from what I can tell, it also has to do with the overall ratio of bad questions to good questions. I imagine that if you get a good question or two out there, the warning will go away quickly $\endgroup$
    – Jim
    Commented Jul 11, 2014 at 12:38
  • $\begingroup$ I don't think deleting the questions is necessary anyway. They're not bad questions, it just so happens that one of them was already answered somewhere. And the other is too broad to be answered in a reasonable-size answer (and perhaps, but less clearly, opinion-based), it's a good example of a perfectly fine question that just doesn't fit the format. You shouldn't feel like you need to delete them, and others might even still learn from them. Should you worry? I don't think so, as the others explained: you still have quite a bit of margin and a couple good questions should fix that warning. $\endgroup$
    – Wouter
    Commented Jul 11, 2014 at 21:42
  • $\begingroup$ Related: meta.stackexchange.com/q/236836 $\endgroup$
    – pacoverflow
    Commented Jul 22, 2014 at 2:47
  • $\begingroup$ Related: meta.physics.stackexchange.com/q/8851/2451 and links therein. $\endgroup$
    – Qmechanic Mod
    Commented Jul 31, 2016 at 12:39

1 Answer 1

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Deleting the questions will make it worse.

One or two bad posts will not cause you to be blocked from using the site.

Completely correct, you are not yet blocked.

The exact algorithm is secret, but from what I see one more bad question won't affect you. The warning is more of a way to provide you with the links to improve your subsequent questions, the actual ban is rather far off.

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  • $\begingroup$ "Deleting the questions will make it worse." So so you suggest it's not a good idea to delete own questions when they are not received well? $\endgroup$
    – Calmarius
    Commented Jul 14, 2014 at 16:21
  • $\begingroup$ @Calmarius Eh, it's iffy. If they're unfixable, deleting is great. Otherwise, try to improve them. The question ban algorithm isn't something I totally agree with, and escalation-on-deletion is one of those parts where I disagree with it :P It doesn't escalate much, though. $\endgroup$
    – Manishearth Mod
    Commented Jul 14, 2014 at 16:41
  • $\begingroup$ @Manishearth In most cases, the improvement of the questions doesn't help, because most downvoters simply don't get his downvote back (in most cases he doesn't even hear about the improvement). $\endgroup$
    – peterh
    Commented Jul 16, 2014 at 8:59
  • $\begingroup$ @PeterHorvath When he edits it it will bump up to the front page, others might vote on it. Or he can post in chat to the same effect. $\endgroup$
    – Manishearth Mod
    Commented Jul 16, 2014 at 11:48
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, that is the theory. The practice is that I never could let reopen a question after it was closed, no matter how hard I worked on it. Maybe you could see this: physics.stackexchange.com/q/126617 , this: physics.stackexchange.com/q/113034 or this: physics.stackexchange.com/q/119562 . $\endgroup$
    – peterh
    Commented Jul 16, 2014 at 14:09
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    $\begingroup$ Both questions have a different reason for being locked. The duplicate question (about gravity) is obviously correct that it was marked as a duplicate. The other question was closed as "primarily opinion based". I don't think this is a fair assessment. While I'm asking about opinions, I'm asking about what the initial opinion about a currently accepted theory was. This is not an opinion, because the history of the reception of the theory was solidified into fact once it happened and thus should not be an opinion anymore. "I don't like this" is an opinion. "in 1908, this was (not) liked" isn't. $\endgroup$
    – Nzall
    Commented Jul 16, 2014 at 14:34
  • $\begingroup$ @PeterHorvath We've already discussed this before, I think I've mentioned why I feel the theory works (from experience). The first two questions are unclear. The third is strictly a biology question. $\endgroup$
    – Manishearth Mod
    Commented Jul 16, 2014 at 14:34
  • $\begingroup$ @NateKerkhofs About the second one, neither is the question about physics concepts. The close reason might be wrong, but it's close enough. $\endgroup$
    – Manishearth Mod
    Commented Jul 16, 2014 at 14:36
  • $\begingroup$ The FAQ states "Accepted and/or actively researched theories Example: Why do we think there are only three generations of fundamental particles?" as a reason to ask this question. I also found the question physics.stackexchange.com/q/34217 that also isn't directly about a physics concept. $\endgroup$
    – Nzall
    Commented Jul 16, 2014 at 14:56
  • $\begingroup$ @NateKerkhofs I suggest you bring that up on a separate meta post. We have allowed some soft questions in the past, but not many. :) $\endgroup$
    – Manishearth Mod
    Commented Jul 16, 2014 at 15:09

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