Auto-Suspend Default OFF: Why Manual Review Is Preferred for Critical Anomalies

Last Thursday at 09:14 a creator from Bursa named Selin messaged us on WhatsApp: "Has my account been suspended?" It hadn't been. Her anomaly detection score had climbed to 82, hitting critical, and a red banner appeared in her dashboard — but her account kept earning. Because in thMenu Phase 3, the auto-suspend flag is default OFF. Support reviewed the flag within four hours, confirmed it was a false-positive, and cleared it. Selin lost no commission, and our relationship stayed intact.

Why Automated Suspension Is Risky

Our anomaly model watches three signals: self-purchase from the same IP, more than three refunds in seven days, and unusually high click-to-conversion velocity. In Selin's case the third signal misfired — an Instagram reel had pushed 1,200 clicks and 19 conversions in 48 hours. The model interpreted that burst as bot traffic.

If auto-suspend had been enabled, Selin's account would have been frozen at 03:00 UTC when the aff-auto-suspend cron runs every 30 minutes. She'd have woken up to "suspended" on her dashboard and panicked. False-positive rate sits around 15% — roughly one in seven anomalies is wrong.

What Manual Review Protects

Affiliate programs aren't transactional. With our 20% lifetime commission structure we typically work with a creator for 18-24 months. A single wrongful suspension travels fast in creator communities and erodes program trust. Critical anomalies surface as red banners in the super-admin dashboard and are reviewed manually within two to six hours.

• If false-flagged: one click clears it; the creator never sees a suspension.
• If genuine fraud: same click suspends and freezes commission.
• If unclear: we email the creator and ask for context.

When Will The Flag Be Turned On?

Manual review doesn't scale past roughly 5,000 active affiliates. When we hit that threshold we'll first raise the critical score from 80 to 90, then enable auto-suspend only for the 90+ score AND all three signals present combination. Today, with 1,400 affiliates, manual review is both feasible and preferable.

The flag toggle lives in .github/workflows/setup-phase3-toggles.yml and flips the affiliate.auto_suspend_critical_anomalies value in platform_settings. The decision isn't a single engineer's — it requires sign-off from product and operations together.

FAQ

Will my pending commission be paid if I'm suspended? A suspension freezes unpaid commission; once manual review clears you, it's released same-day.

I just had a viral post — will the model flag me? Possibly, but since auto-suspend is off you won't feel anything. If you see a banner, message support.

Where do I see my anomaly score? Affiliate dashboard → Health Score. 60+ is a yellow alert, 80+ is critical — but no automated action yet.

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