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I got a warning on tex.stackexchange.com:

Wait! Some of your past questions have not been well-received, and you're in danger of being blocked from asking any more.

For help formulating a clear, useful question, see: How do I ask a good question?

Also, edit your previous questions to improve formatting and clarity.

However, I have 3 questions posted there, with +5, +2, +-0 reputation. What is happening here? I'll file this under "bug" because I suspect so, but feel free to remove it in case I'm wrong.

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    I see that two of your questions have been marked as dupes: that doesn't (to me) make them 'not well-received', but perhaps the Powers see things differently. I guess we need a staff answer here: the message is beyond 'local' control.
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    May 24, 2014 at 15:52
  • The best I can find at the moment is meta.stackexchange.com/questions/86997, but that doesn't really help much! Two things: (1) I do wonder if there is a bug somewhere here and (2) there is no 'local' input into these messages.
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    May 24, 2014 at 16:10
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    Needed to say, I received the very same warning on another site in a very similar situation (low votes in general, some dupes)
    – yo'
    May 24, 2014 at 20:29
  • You don't have a bunch of deleted questions, do you? I believe those also count toward the warning.
    – David Z
    May 26, 2014 at 1:03
  • Related: Warn new users when they ask a question after a previous question is closed, downvoted, or deleted
    – Werner Mod
    May 26, 2014 at 6:09
  • I don't have any deleted question - none I know of.
    – FooBar
    May 26, 2014 at 6:55
  • @DavidZ From the mod-only data, there are no deleted questions or indeed anything else to suggest why there might be a warning.
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    May 26, 2014 at 8:07
  • I am not sure if that is relevant but I have clicked on a downward arrow by accident (don't remember on which question but it was on the 20th). I have immediately removed the bad vote again but I still got awarded with the Critic's badge and got to keep it :-( So maybe that is how these warnings are generated?
    – MatoBehr
    May 26, 2014 at 18:36

1 Answer 1

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I could understand such a message if a substantial part of a user's questions were closed as “off-topic“, “too broad” or “unclear what you're asking”, or several got downvoted.

Closing as duplicate might mean that someone with more experience found a question that could apply also in a different case and the unexperienced questioner couldn't realize it. So the “closed” mark is not sufficient, in this case, to judge the quality of a question, much more if it has been upvoted. Four questions, three of which upvoted, should not trigger such a warning, in my opinion.

Considering a “closed as duplicate” question as “not well-received” (read “bad”) is, in my opinion, greatly exaggerated1 (read “stretched out”).

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. (Mark Twain)

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