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Now this "opinion-based-questions" experiment is running we have this annoying situation that users frequently post questions as opinion-based that clearly should have been regular questions.

Sometimes I post a reply (because we can't comment...) asking the user to re-post the question as a regular question (since there is no way to change a question's type).

My question here is: are there any repercussions (like question ban) for users when they do that? I.e. when they re-post their question and delete the opinion-based question?

A related question is: when is no longer possible for a user to delete their opinion-based question? (Like: when there are replies, or upvoted replies?)

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    I'd like to extend this to posts, not just questions, as all responses are answers. Hopefully the content is excluded from the algorithm to determine the user's question/answer bans. How users that are blocked it interacts with could be "interesting" though; if a users is in their 6 month window and "answers" does that count as their 1 answer for the next 6 months? Considering that those answers could be comment-like or answer-like I'm on the fence about both. I should have asked the Dev/PM last night when I was talking to them. >_< Hindsight is 20/20. Commented Nov 20 at 9:57
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    Note that as confirmed here, this is not an "experiment that is running", it is a permanent feature that they have no intention of turning off: meta.stackoverflow.com/a/436544/157957 Commented Nov 20 at 10:30
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    @IMSoP OK, too bad, but thanks for the info. Although, since they "are working on an update of what is coming next for the experiment" I think technically it's still an experiment. Commented Nov 20 at 10:36
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    "Permanent" isn't really what they say there, @IMSoP , just that there's no planned end date for the experiment. Commented Nov 20 at 10:41
  • As long as you can turn it off by opting out from experiments (which should be the expected behavior, but sadly isn't the current status due to a bug), it is still an experiment. Commented Nov 20 at 11:00
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    There is none. These questions cannot be downvoted. So the likelihood of them being considered in the question ban algorithm is low, since they are neither "well received" nor "not well received," since they have no actual score that is tracked. That isn't to say a moderator cannot suspend a user, who submits far to many of those questions, since a moderator can always step in to prevent bad behavior. Commented Nov 20 at 12:02
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    @ThomA I've always found hindsight to be more like 50/50. Commented Nov 20 at 13:14
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    @ThomA Well, at some point between now and the heat death of the universe, all features of the site will be removed. But the answer was not "we'll keep it going for at least X to see how it evolves", or "we'll assess after Y rounds of improvements"; just "this will not be turned off any time soon". We should not be tricked into thinking "we don't need to worry about this because it's only temporary"; it's here to stay, for months or years. Commented Nov 20 at 14:40
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    @ThomA is there a 6 month window for answer bans? I thought that was only for question bans. Commented Nov 20 at 18:50
  • @SecurityHound it is possible that number of posts is taken into account for bans... So for example one had not-so-well-received post and than posted dozen of "Advice" questions they will be banned... Without much recourse if those "opinion-based" questions counts the same as original for the secret ban algorithm. Commented Nov 20 at 19:40
  • Sorry, I conflated posts, answers, and questions in there a little, @JohnMontgomery . I might access the "time machine" later to clarify it better Commented Nov 20 at 19:57
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    @AlexeiLevenkov - If the questions score is not tracked for these questions, then I don't understand, how the algorithm could even even prevent additional questions based on poorly received questions since the score is not tracked. Commented Nov 20 at 21:20
  • @SecurityHound if the ban condition is "Posts.Count > 3 && Posts.Sum(post.score) / Posts.Count < 0" than questions with score 0 have significant impact on the ban... indeed since we don't know it could be as you suggest "Posts.Where (post.score != 0).Count > 3 && ..." or maybe even "Posts.Where(posts.IsRealQuestion).Count && ..." if they filtering out "experimental" posts... Commented Nov 20 at 21:32
  • @AlexeiLevenkov - It's my understanding that the "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" doesn't change the score of those types of questions. Commented Nov 20 at 21:36
  • @SecurityHound I'm just trying to point out that total count of user's posts may be included in the formula irrespective of the score. Which will impact ban if "experimental" posts are not filtered out (i.e. it is well established that deleted post impact ban) Commented Nov 20 at 21:40

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