My reputation got hammered by an Admin, as I: 1) Answered my own question 2) and placed it in the wrong "forum" - ServerFault instead of SuperUser.

So I deleted it. BAD IDEA.

I am now locked out of Answering ANYONE'S questions in SuperUser, as I was supposed to somehow "fix" my answer and clear it up that way. Well, I can't, because it created a deadly embrace of some kind. (You can't fix what doesn't exist.)

Can anyone clear this lock, so that I can answer questions again?

migrated from superuser.com Jun 20 '18 at 19:55


  • 2
    You should ask this question on a meta forum. And as far as I know the locks are temporary. Anyhow, I had the same thing before with Ask Ubuntu (after some warnings, if I remember well). I opened a new account and now I know which site to avoid. If your description is complete, then it's a rather harsh treatment. – Tomasz Jun 20 '18 at 18:29
  • Thanks for the commiseration. It was rather harsh and berating as well to try to help others and get slammed for it. I would open a new account, but my reputation on other "forums" is up there, after years of posting, and I'd rather not lose that. – Bee Kay Jun 20 '18 at 18:33
  • 2
    Reading the Help Centre is always a good idea on any site... right now you're just compounding your error by posting this here instead of Meta :/ btw, one user can only "hammer" you to the value of 3 invisible internet points... 2 for the question & 1 for the answer. – Tetsujin Jun 20 '18 at 18:34
  • 1
    I didn't have much to lose. Some people seem to have no outlet for their frustrations. I marked this question for moving to meta, so hopefully it gets moved there soon. I wonder why you got locked on SE if you misposted on SF? – Tomasz Jun 20 '18 at 18:40
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    Since this is the first time I've even heard of the "Meta" site, and it having the ability to be posted to, seems a bit draconian to yet again punish for asking a relevant question of this nature on any forum here. Also, when the count for a question is "1", and someone puts you to "-1", and you delete the question - you're locked out of that forum - from my personal experience here. – Bee Kay Jun 20 '18 at 18:44
  • 1
    From your profile dashboard, click the Question link, and then deleted recent questions which appears at the bottom. This should allow you to get back to the question, undelete it, and clean things up (if you can). – Jason Bassford Jun 20 '18 at 18:57
  • 2
    @BeeKay - your current frustration levels seem to be of your own making. Honestly, the more you flail at the system, the more people will downvote, the more you will be 'locked out'. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy in the end. Suck it up, be the bigger 'man/woman/gender of your choice', participate, gain reputation, enjoy. – Tetsujin Jun 20 '18 at 19:06
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    Other than being a spammer, you don't get locked out of anything based on one post. There's either information you aren't including here, or you have misinterpreted something. It can be sorted out on the Meta site. – fixer1234 Jun 20 '18 at 19:34
  • @Tetsujin What a sadistic world view. I could call your comment a self-fulfilling prophesy as well. The guy's been around for more than 4 years and gets locked out without a warning. Isn't something wrong here? – Tomasz Jun 20 '18 at 19:41
  • @Tomasz: (1) As fixer1234 says, you don’t get locked out based on one post. It feels like the OP is not telling us the whole story.  (2) The OP’s been around for more than four years (member of 14 communities, active in 9), and they haven’t heard of Meta, and refer to Stack Exchange sites as “forums”. Isn't something wrong here? (Then again, I notice that you also used the word “forum”. See Are Stack Exchange sites forums?) – Scott Jun 23 '18 at 19:56
  • @Scott No, I don't think that changes anything. 1. Maybe he (or she) doesn't know or remember the whole story? What about presenting people a warning that they're on the edge when they try to post, with relevant info? 2. Why would anyone need to know about the meta? A regular user shouldn't care. It's meta, after all. 3. Think of the four years account as opposed to a rather temporary spammer or troll account, which should be locked out quickly. 4. I'm not going into the discussion whether this is a forum or not. A pure word game. I advise a healthy dose of flexibility in semantic mind-frame. – Tomasz Jun 24 '18 at 11:47
  • @Tomasz "A pure word game" – no. In a cinema you shouldn't act as if you were in a gym. Here you shouldn't act as if it was a forum. Different places, different purposes, different names. If you're not convinced yet, then think about your kitchen vs. your toilet. – Kamil Maciorowski Jun 27 '18 at 0:08


The answer is unfortunately no, as it is an automated block.



How can I get out of an answer ban?


Stack Exchange cannot lift answer bans by request.



Source Why are answers no longer being accepted from my account? - Help Center - Super User

So far, on SuperUser, you have posted 3 (currently deleted) answers with a total score of -1.

  • 2 were answers that did not really answer the question and should have been comments.

  • The other was an answer that was essentially saying thank you for another answer.

I've undeleted the only answer that I think can be improved (https://superuser.com/a/1107906/337631).

Please read How do I write a good answer?, and try and improve yours (hint: It needs to be a standalone answer that completely answers the question).


  • You are not currently blocked from asking questions on SuperUser.
  • Any issues you have with your account on ServerFault should be raised on their meta.
  • I have no "existing answers" to fix, so I can't undo those items. – Bee Kay Jun 20 '18 at 22:06
  • Thank you for your help on this, and for relocating this to Meta SuperUser. Apparently I managed to time out between my initial comment and my edits, so a second comment. – Bee Kay Jun 20 '18 at 22:12
  • You shouldn’t be submitting “thank you” comments anyway. If an answer is helpful it should be upvoted. If an answer, to your own question answers your question, accepting the answer is appropriate. “Thank You” commentary is typically just removed when flagged. Help Center and numerous Meta StackExchange questions confirm this. Your answer van isn’t personal, but your answer ban, is caused by not understanding what is expected out of an answer it seems. Our basic expectations are outlined in the help center (for example not submitting commentary as an answer). – Ramhound Jun 20 '18 at 23:15
  • (1) I’m curious why you undeleted the OP’s “answer” rather than just telling them to edit it and undelete it (or flag it for undeletion) themselves.  (AFAIK, even low-rep users can see and edit their deleted posts — although finding them is tricky.)  Why not just give them a link to the deleted post(s), and reiterate Jason Bassford’s advice on how to find deleted recent posts?  (2) I don’t see how the OP is likely to able to improve their answer  … (Cont’d) – Scott Jun 23 '18 at 19:56
  • (Cont’d) …  to How do you stop the process of deleting an account on Mac? other than cosmetically, without copying from the other answer, unless they have some better information that they aren’t telling us about. (3) +1 for “Any issues you have with your account on Server Fault should be raised on their meta.” – Scott Jun 23 '18 at 19:56
  • @Scott It was mod deleted, so could not be undeleted by the OP or community votes. – DavidPostill Jun 23 '18 at 20:03
  • I realized that; that why I added the “(or flag it for undeletion)” note. Are you saying that a mod-deleted answer can’t be edited or flagged by its author? – Scott Jun 23 '18 at 20:08
  • @Scott Yes. That's exactly the case. "If your post was deleted by a moderator, you can flag one of your other posts and write a note in the "other" section explaining the situation and requesting undeletion." See meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5221/… – DavidPostill Jun 23 '18 at 20:32
  • @scott Or, or course, if you have no active posts to flag, you can ask on meta :) – DavidPostill Jun 23 '18 at 20:33

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