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I am new to this site and it is not the easiest to figure out.

Someone was trying to help me on a question I asked (my very first post) and finally helped me by pointing me to a different thread of his which held the answer.

Being new to the site, it wasn't really easy to see the difference between "answer" and "comment" and so when I saw a box I could comment, I asked 3 questions in one reply.

Toscho the moderator came along and deleted my post and then said:

Sorry, but this is not an answer. Please ask new, separate questions. – toscho♦ 16 hours ago

So, I did what I thought he asked, by posting a single question instead of 3 in one reply and then I saw today that he again deleted my post and (most likely) downvoted me as well. Someone did and I doubt it was the OP who was trying to help me.

I was going to ask him why he would tell me to ask a question and then delete it and downvote me, but I saw a warning that says I am dangerously close to getting banned.

So, I clicked around and finally saw the difference between commenting and answering. I couldn't have commented if I wanted to since for some reason I need 50 freaking points to comment on his OP! How am I ever supposed to get that many points?

Anyway, now that I know the difference, is there a way I can remove myself from the "dangerously close to getting banned" list? I can't believe I got such a warning after making 2 posts. That seems absurd.

PS - is there a way to contact people (like moderators or the guy who was trying to help me) directly through a private message? I have no idea how conversational I can be in comments. I read the rules and was trying to not be conversational and then I noticed everyone else seemed pretty conversational. So, I'd rather PM people sometimes if possible.

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  • I don't downvote new users for simple mistakes, and I rarely delete a question. Questions in answers are a different thing: We mods have to delete them. – fuxia Jun 23 '15 at 17:22
  • That's cool, I wanted to just reply there, but the warning feature is what caused me to realize I was not allowed to post at all unless it was an answer... the layout is weird to a newcomer. Now that I'm familiar with it, it's easy to spot the difference between a comment and an answer. I didn't quite understand the difference before is all...and I only posted publicly because I didn't want to get in trouble for trying to reply to you in an answer again like a dingus. Once I figured out the problem, obviously that would be the wrong approach! :) – Nate Jun 23 '15 at 18:45
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So, I clicked around and finally saw the difference between commenting and answering. I couldn't have commented if I wanted to since for some reason I need 50 freaking points to comment on his OP! How am I ever supposed to get that many points?

That's not that many points. If you spend bit of time on site and answer several questions you would have that much in no time. :)

Anyway, now that I know the difference, is there a way I can remove myself from the "dangerously close to getting banned" list? I can't believe I got such a warning after making 2 posts. That seems absurd.

I am not familiar with specific message, but it's probably part of automated system reactions.

There are more or less two things to know about it:

  • the specifics about system's reactions are not released (or they would be gamed)
  • if you correct your behavior the system will adjust pretty easily

You are not on some list-of-horrible-people, you just made some mistakes in using site and triggered automated reaction. If you continue to use the site in normal fashion it will, in just as automated way, leave you alone.

is there a way to contact people (like moderators or the guy who was trying to help me) directly through a private message?

There is no PM system in Stack Exchange. If you have any issues please bring them up on meta like this and we will do our best to handle and explain. :)

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As for the rule that got your posts deleted (I am also a moderator so I can see the deleted posts), it is pretty simple: Don't post questions in the "Answer" box. This Stack is not a discussion forum, nor are any stacks actually. It isn't a conversation. The only places that you should post questions are 1) the "Ask" box (https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/ask) and 2) the comments box but only if the question is requesting addition information relevant to the original question or related to the associated answer.

Yes, you need some points in order to chat but those are relatively easy to get as you get them for numerous activities on the site.

You can chat on http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/6/the-loop though of-hand I don't remember how much, if any, rep you need for that.

Most of your questions can be resolved if you just take the tour and read the "Help" section.

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  • Thank you, but is there a way I can remove myself from the "dangerously close to getting banned" list? These are the most important questions. The rest was just explaining the situation. I figured out the difference between answering and commenting as I explained, but a little too late. – Nate Jun 23 '15 at 16:17
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    If you don't make the same mistakes in the future the problem will dissipate. Just follow the rules from now in and you shouldn't have to worry about it. – s_ha_dum Jun 23 '15 at 16:30
  • You need a minimum of 20 reputation to chat in chat. This 20 reputation is calculated by adding all your reputation earned on the entire SE network from what I can gather. But bottom point is, you need at least 20 reputation points regardless of how it is calculated or where is comes from – Pieter Goosen Jun 24 '15 at 11:03

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