0
$\begingroup$

My account seems to have been "destroyed". I say "destroyed" rather than "deleted" because I read this which says that "destroyed" accounts will have their questions deleted. This seems to be the case for me. However, this information, which is about all I could find about "destroyed" accounts, says that if I re-create my account, I will have a 14-day suspension. This does not seem to be the case.

Before asking this question, I read this long answer and can confirm that my question was not deleted automatically due to any of those things (such as too many delete votes) because the number of "views" on the question was only 1.

Basically, my question disappeared and I was signed out. But then when I signed back in, it was as if I was a brand new user again (see the message I got for a second time, 40 minutes after the first time):

enter image description here

So I do not think I was actually "destroyed" because for such process "It is intended for things like spammers, where we just want them to be gone" and I do not think I am being considered a spammer because I asked one question which was carefully put together, and I read many of the questions on the site before posting anything.

My major concern is that my question is completely gone, and it involved quite a lot of research to put that question together (the question was several paragraphs long, including a figure, and some references).

$\endgroup$

migrated from meta.stackexchange.com Feb 14 at 9:03

This question came from our discussion, support, and feature requests site for meta-discussion of the Stack Exchange family of Q&A websites.

6
$\begingroup$

So I do not think I was actually "destroyed"

No. Your account was manually destroyed by the moderation team.

However this information, which is about all I could find about "destroyed" accounts, says that if I re-create my account, I will have a 14-day suspension. This does not seem to be the case.

It's not a bug. We have two options while destroying accounts:

  1. This user was created to post spam or nonsense and has no other positive participation.
  2. The vast majority of all content contributed by this user violates our terms of service.

Your account was destroyed using the second option. As explained by Shog9 here, the first option imposes a 14-day auto suspension whereas the second option doesn't.

Also, we don't discuss account destruction or deletion reasons publicly unless prompted by the user-in-context themself. So I won't be stating the reason for your specific case here.

My major concern is that my question is completely gone, and it involved quite a lot of research to put that question together (the question was several paragraphs long, including a figure, and some references).

That's understandable. But I'm afraid, the moderation team has decided against undeletion of the question. For further information or complaints, you may use the contact form.

$\endgroup$
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ But when their account is truly suspended, why can they ask here on meta? I know the question was migrated, but migrations are blocked if a user is suspended on the target site. Was the latest (recreated) account deleted again? I think so because there seems to be no existing user associated with this post. $\endgroup$ – MEE was the missing bracket Feb 14 at 11:49
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @MEE "migrations are blocked if a user is suspended on the target site"...that only holds true for account suspensions. User destruction induces a lower-level suspension and doesn't prevent migrations. Account destruction works a bit differently. For more details, you can ask this on Meta SE. And no, when this question was migrated here it had no associated user on QCSE (as that associated user account had already been destroyed yesterday). $\endgroup$ – Sanchayan Dutta Feb 14 at 11:59
  • $\begingroup$ Okay, that is strange because there was recently a case where a user wondering why their account was suspended "for rule violations" when they recreated their account. But I'll have to trust you in this case. P.S. You probably mean they feed SpamRam, the anti-spam system? $\endgroup$ – MEE was the missing bracket Feb 14 at 12:01
  • $\begingroup$ I was a bit hazy on that. I asked around and it seems Shog9's answer here explains it well. If an account is destroyed using the "spam" option it automatically feeds the anti-spam system and imposes a 14-day suspension. That is probably what the user you mention, noticed. But in this case, the account was destroyed using the "violates ToS" option and didn't impose the 14-day suspension. It did, however, feed the SpamRam. $\endgroup$ – Sanchayan Dutta Feb 14 at 21:17
  • $\begingroup$ That was why I was wondering (and asking). $\endgroup$ – MEE was the missing bracket Feb 14 at 21:27

You must log in to answer this question.