| $todoMarker$ cite specifics of the problem behavior on $siteName$ and cite the [help center]($helpCenterUrl$) if relevant.
$todoMarker$ issue warning or suspension
$todoMarker$ explain what the user can do to address the behavior problem, and encourage them to return (that is, if you want them back) once the behavior has been addressed. |
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| It has been called to our attention that you have asked the same question repeatedly.
If your question was closed or did not attract responses, then the first thing to do
is to *improve the question*; some guidance for this is [given here]($howToAskUrl$). Questions that aren’t up to standards are voted on and may be closed: this doesn’t mean they’re gone forever, as they can be reopened if improved or clarified (as appropriate). Please see our [editing]($editingUrl$) guidelines for how to improve your question.
However, please do not keep re-asking the same question. If your ability to ask questions has been suspended, do not create new accounts to circumvent our systems; this will result in increasingly longer suspensions being applied. |
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| It has come to our attention that you, or someone using your account, has been using multiple accounts to artificially game our systems. The duplicate accounts will be removed and the votes invalidated. Please refrain from using secondary accounts to circumvent our systems in the future.
It is not fair to other users of $siteName$ to allow users to gain reputation through [sockpuppets]($sockPuppetsUrl$).
Please be aware that we take the integrity of the Stack Overflow systems very seriously, and future incidents of this type will result in increasingly longer suspensions being applied to your profile. However, we know that in some cases, there are legitimate reasons for operating a second account - that is okay, as long as you adhere to the rule that you can't use the second account to do anything that wouldn't be possible with just one account. If you'd like to avoid possible future issues altogether, please use the [contact form]($contactUrl$) and select the "I need to merge user profiles" option, so that we can merge them without further incident. |
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| Some of your recent interactions with other community members have violated our [Code of Conduct]($conductUrl$). We get it; anyone who's ever tried to engage with others online has probably been tempted to lash out at someone else. However, on our sites, we do require all participants to interact in a professional and civil manner. If another user has wronged you in some way, please do not respond in kind. Simply flag the content for moderator attention and move on.
In particular, we would like to call out the following interactions as being problematic and having contributed to sending this message:
<!-- Please consider adding examples of the problematic behavior here. Research shows this helps with decreasing recidivism. If you do not include examples, delete the paragraph above. -->
<!-- choose one of the following paragraphs -->
<!-- option 1 -->
Please refrain from this behavior in the future. We take the Code of Conduct very seriously and we encourage you to take a moment now to review it. We’d like you to not only consider your intent, but also the impact your interactions are having on others. And while we hope it’s unnecessary, we want to make sure that you’re aware that future incidents of this type could result in your profile being suspended.
<!-- option 2 -->
Your recent interactions cross a line and need to stop because they affect others negatively. We take the Code of Conduct very seriously and encourage you to take a moment now to review it, as further violations will result in increasingly longer suspensions being applied to your profile.
<!-- option 3 -->
Your recent interactions are clear violations of our Code of Conduct and are unacceptable on our platform. You need to cease this behavior if you wish to continue participating in our websites; future violations will result in further action, up to your profile being suspended for several months or years.
<!-- choose one of the above paragraphs --> |
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| We noticed that many of your posts include things like signatures, tag lines, or other information that isn’t part of your question or answer. We have a [place in your profile]($editProfileUrl$) where you can tell us all about yourself, and it’s directly linked from everything you write - there’s no need to include such information in your posts.
On traditional discussion forums it is often customary to be less formal and more individual, but at $siteName$, one of our goals is to build a library of high-quality questions and answers where it’s as easy as possible to find the best answer. We know it can take some adjustment, but it’s our "just the answers" ethos that results in questions getting great answers, often extremely quickly.
We look forward to your future contributions. You can also share more about yourself in your profile. We actually love to see it there - it gives the community a little color - but we try to keep it out of the main Q&A. If you have questions about this, please feel free to ask. |
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| We noticed that some of your posts seem to exist only to promote your product or website. Our [policy on promotion]($promotionUrl$) says:
> The community here tends to vote down overt self-promotion and flag it as spam. Post good, relevant answers, and if some (**but not all**) happen to be about your product or website, that’s okay. However, you *must* disclose your affiliation in your answers.
Any type of "astroturfing" or other guerrilla marketing promotion is not acceptable. It brings down the overall value of genuine recommendations for everyone on the site, and future instances of this may result in action, up to and including the loss of your account.
We welcome future contributions that are compliant with our guidelines, and hope that you will offer questions and answers of genuine benefit to the community. |
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| We really want you to have a good experience here, and the first step to that is making sure that questions you submit are clear, on topic and provide all of the information someone would need to answer. You may have noticed that questions you’ve asked weren’t well received by the community; they were downvoted and closed.
Specifically, we would like to highlight these questions:
<!-- Please add examples here or remove the line above -->
There are a number of potential reasons for this and we’d like to help you diagnose exactly what’s happening. Questions may be downvoted and closed because they fit one of our [closure criteria]($closedQuestionUrl$), or are of the [type that we’d prefer users refrain from asking]($dontAskUrl$). While we’re excited that you’re contributing, we ask that you please take some time to read the information linked below - prior to asking another question - in order to assure the best possible experience (both for yourself, and also for other community members):
- A brief [guide on how to ask questions]($howToAskUrl$)
- A short summary of [questions we permit]($onTopicUrl$) |
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| We received reports of unusual voting patterns coming from your account. After an investigation, we found a pattern of downvoting the contributions of specific users. You should not be targeting users with downvotes for any perceived wrongs they’ve done to you. Believing that someone has downvoted one of your posts is not a reason to downvote their posts in return.
On the Stack Exchange network, we believe that votes should reflect the quality of the post, not your general feelings about the person who wrote it. So please note that these targeted downvotes will be invalidated. Our system has processes in place to detect various types of targeted voting between users, so voting of this type will fairly quickly be discovered. If another user has done something to offend you, rather than downvoting them, flag it for moderator attention or use the [contact form]($contactUrl$) to send a report to us.
Continued activity of this sort can result in increasingly longer suspensions for those doing it. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please feel free to write back. |
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| We recently noticed a substantial number of votes on your account to or from specific users. While we encourage everyone to upvote great posts and downvote bad ones, the motivation for doing so needs to be anchored in the merits of the *post*, **not the person who wrote it.** Please refrain from targeting specific users when voting.
Stack Exchange works by ensuring that the best information rises to the top. Voting specifically for content that benefits your friends, family or colleagues, or to harm a specific user, unfairly skews that system.
Please note that the votes in question will be invalidated. Our system has processes in place to detect various types of voting between groups of users, and these processes are continuously running. If you know anyone who may be voting for your contributions in kind, please ask them to stop before the system detects such activity and takes similar actions on their account.
Continued activity of this sort can result in increasingly longer suspensions. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please feel free to write back. If you created secondary accounts by mistake and would like to avoid possible future issues altogether, please use the [contact form]($contactUrl$) and select the "I need to merge user profiles" option, so you can merge them without further incident. |
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| We’ve noticed a pattern of engaging in lengthy discussions in comments, frequently consisting of responses involving multiple, back-to-back posts. Comments are intended as brief messages to [provide feedback, add minor information, ask for clarification, or discuss the *content of the post*]($commentUrl$). Lengthy clarifications should be edited into the post itself or posted separately as a new question or answer, and extended discussions should be taken to [chat]($ChatUrl). Extensive comment threads tend to be a distraction for other readers. **These lengthy discussions are often hard to follow, and can easily hide critical information.**
Our goal is to provide readers with expert questions and answers, **not** host discussion or debate. If you desire conversation, [stop into the site’s chat room]($chatUrl$).
We hope that you can work with the community on achieving our goals by:
- Asking [specific, researched, relevant, on-topic questions]($howToAskUrl$)
- Providing [clear, useful, accurate and well-researched information in answers]($howToAnswerUrl$)
- Treating others with [respect and civility]($behaviorUrl$) |
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| We’ve noticed that at least one of your posts contains text copied from other published material without indicating the source of the text.
As a general rule, posts should be your original work, but including a small passage of text from another source can be a great way to support your post. Please note that **we require full attribution** with a citation/link indicating the original source, and make sure that you **clearly distinguish quoted text from text written by you**. For more information, please see [how to reference material written by others]($referencingUrl$). |
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| You have recently removed or defaced content from your posts. Please note that once you post a question or answer to this site, those posts become part of the collective efforts of others who have also contributed to that content. Posts that are potentially useful to others should not be removed except under extraordinary circumstances. Even if the post is no longer useful to the original author, that information is still beneficial to others who may run into similar problems in the future - this is the underlying philosophy of Stack Exchange.
Extensive deletions take a lot of effort to repair; please read ["I’ve thought better of my question; can I delete it?"]($deleteAlternativesUrl$) for possible alternatives. Because of the amount of disruption these incidents can cause, we have placed your account on hold for $todoSuspendMarker$ days while we reach out to you to avoid any further misunderstandings. Once this matter has been resolved, your reputation score will be restored and your account will resume as normal.
We sincerely hope this is just a misunderstanding, but we understand that you may have an exceptional reason to remove this content. If so, let us know by replying to this message. |
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