There was one past documented case of a user on a shared school network constantly getting upvoted by their peers, and thus getting suspended for voting themselves up
You'd want to use a new IP, new email, and new name. It might be impossible to create a new account with an email linked to a previously suspended one.
@SonictheInclusiveHedgehog So allow them to change the password and unsuspend? That would generally solve the issue of transient compromise.
If you've not supplied enough info about yourself to show others that you're in control of your account again, you'd have to start afresh anyway.
One potential way: create a secret string and publish the SHA-512 hash of it on your profile, then if your account gets compromised you can give SE the secret string and have them SHA-512 hash it and see that it's the same as the published hash
Accounts on Wikipedia may be compromised in a number of ways, allowing the misuse of user access levels, as well as user reputation for illegitimate purposes. It is important for users to take active steps to protect their accounts, especially those with high levels of access such as administrators. This may be done in a number of ways.
Users whose accounts are compromised may have access reduced or their accounts blocked or globally locked.
== Why accounts become compromised ==
Both weak and strong passwords are vulnerable, although strong passwords are better. Although this is written ...
I imagine the subsequent ones were for ban evading.
The Pentagon? :P
So it sounds like you got banned due to the use of a shared IP?
Has staff confirmed this?
Given your discussion of your family, is it possible that you're underage? Due to various silly laws, SE is required to ban people under 13 (or 16 for some countries).
The unlikeliness aside, this makes it sound more like you were suspended for being argumentative or something. I usually think that's overreacting on the mods' part, but at least it makes sense from their perspective.
If that's really the case, waiting some time and then honestly apologizing about what you did may persuade mods to reduce your suspension length to time served.
Are you sure it wasn't two suspensions or something?
One lasting 7 days and one lasting a year?
I'm not sure if SE works like that, but I've seen sites where that can happen. Two simultaneous suspensions are in play concurrently but only one of them is displayed to you. The result is that after one is up, another seems to appear.
But if you waited the 7 days but was not unsuspended then, you certainly have a right to complain.
By "other sites" do you mean sites on SE? Or totally different websites?
@forest Once the system proceeds to reinstate rights after a site suspension expires, it checks for an active network-wide suspension flag on the network account, and if so, levies it
In any case, whether you or someone else took a suspendable action using your account, you should still be suspended, in the former case for the offense itself, and in the latter case for failing to secure your account.
> I can tell you my account is far more secure than it was before
Generally if you wait a few months they will be more understanding, whereas if you email now it's highly likely they will just suspect you're making excuses.
I mean it's possible that staff don't care or have a grudge against you. In that case the only solution is to either wait out the suspension, or create a new account.
> because my family is suposivly a sock puppet and they are not
Ah, so possible votes from the same IP?
That makes sense. It's unfortunate how common false positives are.
ah...
Why would your family ask about your suspension though?
Room owners: would you mind if we continued the conversation here, or would you rather we stopped this here? (This is getting difficult to follow for those who aren't clued in)
@LittleBowsette I remember a deleted post from you which I had previously participated on, relating to downvotes. You don't happen to still have a link to that?
To be blunt, when making a decision, SE is going to consider everything in your account history, including deleted posts. So if there's anything you're hiding from us, now is the time to let us know; if you continue to hide things, it will be much harder.
@SonictheInclusiveHedgehog By which you mean they will blindly reply "we have extensively investigated your case and concluded that your suspension will be upheld" while not even getting your name right? Aka every suspension appeal ever?
@SonictheInclusiveHedgehog They weren't even able to merge my accounts despite me giving proof that I had the password for both of them, all because I forgot the first half of the email I used to log in. I don't consider them particularly competent. :P
I feel that this whole chat conversation is fruitless. It can't be followed by others, and it's just leading nowhere. Can we please put this to rest for now?
@ArtOfCode If you wouldn't mind, please trash all the messages from this one until now? The whole conversation is fruitless for the reasons I pointed out above.
> Catja help me I don't know why I have 296 days left when I was told 7 on feb 13. (quote me in case)
@Catija From that one girl who keeps rejoining.
We've been talking with her about this and it seems like someone had control of her account or something, and she was banned for sockpuppets but the ban was extended beyond what the site said. Apparently the contact us doesn't work for her.