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The problem

They ask, I answer, they delete. What can I do? And what should I have done?

I answered a question, he accepted it, and then he deleted the question!

Should I warn potential answerers that an OP has a history of erasing (probably homework) questions?

Some new accounts display the following harmful behavior:

  • They ask a question; then
  • After they've got the first answer, they delete it on the spot and disappear.

This removes potentially-valuable content and the reputation that could have been associated with it.

The reason

I think this happens because questions can be deleted by the OP only while they don't have an upvoted answer, or multiple answers. After the first upvoted answer, even the OP can't delete it, even if the question is deeply downvoted. The result is that the question continues to collect downvotes and the OP can't do anything with it.

After having this happen to a few questions, what will the OP do?

  1. Delete or simply abandon the account; or
  2. Register a new one, and continue the same behavior with it.

Why the current solution isn't effective

The current solution is to ban them from asking new questions. But if their account is new, they lose nothing by deleting or simply abandoning it and continuing the harmful behavior on a new one, while the content they created and later deleted remains deleted.

By choosing this strategy, they've already given up the possibility of ever collecting a high reputation on the site. The automatic question ban doesn't worsen this state, thus it doesn't have any motivation and has no effect on the already-deleted content.

Proposed solution of the problem

Instead, I suggest that:

  1. If a question is deeply downvoted, its OP should be allowed to delete it, even if it has an upvoted answer, if only to defend their name/reputation. (Currently, questions can be deleted by their OPs until they don't have an upvoted answer, or multiple answers.)

  2. If the question isn't downvoted (or not too deeply), but there is an misuse, the 10k+ (or 20k+) users should be able to undelete the deleted question by undelete votes. (Questions deleted by their OP can be undeleted currently only by mod intervention.)

Everything that we post here has a license that enables SE to hold it in perpetuity, even against our will. This is why the rules can deny the OP the right to delete their content, even if it is deeply downvoted.

From the other side, what is allowed to exist on its sites is up to the SE. Thus the rules have a freedom in delete/undelete matters in both directions. Thus the wishes or rights of the OPs aren't really relevant here, only the rules of SE count, and thus this suggestion isn't in an intellectual property frame. It is a suggestion to a friendly and useful approach for everybody.

Furthermore, it would require only a minimal change in the SE software. The behavior of the SE in these years shows, minimal changes to the SE software have a low chance to be ever implemented, while major changes have a negligible chance. Thus requests for a software change should suggest a minimal change.

44
  • Any improvement to this proposal, particularly grammar/spelling corrections, are welcomed.
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:45
  • Why do you think that is the reason? I'd guess most new users are unaware that their question can't be deleted once an answer gets upvoted. "Questions deleted by their OP can be undeleted currently only by mod intervention" - I don't think that's true, is it?
    – jonrsharpe
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:47
  • I can't stop wondering on the reading speed of my first downvoters for the reading and understanding the whole proposal in a half minute, and knowing that it is not useful. If you do the same on the main site, you serve as an additional proof behind "The reason" section of the proposal.
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:48
  • @jonrsharpe Maybe it is not their first account... after having even a single sticked question, the obvious reaction is to ask all of your new questions on newly created accounts.
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:50
  • 9
    I don’t understand what problem we are solving here. The problem of users asking and deleting right away should be relatively minimal because of the 1-upvote rule. No?
    – Pekka
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:52
  • @Pekka웃 I described the problem in the first section of the proposal. This problem could be solved by the proposal.
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:53
  • 1
    But the problem already has a solution: if there’s at least one answer with at least one upvote, the user can’t delete their question any more. Is this turning out not to be a sufficient solution?
    – Pekka
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:55
  • @Pekka웃 Because it leads to the ask-del misuse, as it was described in the proposal very clearly.
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:56
  • 2
    @peterh I don't see that this is a real problem. Of course there are always some users who delete their question for various reasons right away after they get answered, but I don't see that this is a real issue on the site and I also don't see how your proposal should improve anything.
    – Rizier123
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:56
  • @peterh Is there actually widespread such misuse, though? Do you have any evidence supporting that? I realize it’s very difficult to come by hard evidence to anyone without access to the database, but there’s got to be something more than just your assertion that there’s a problem.
    – Pekka
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:57
  • 8
    Isn't the problem that people insist on answering crap questions, making it more likely that the Q will be downvoted and the OP will delete it? That can't be solved by letting the OP delete it in more cases. And as I understand it there are systems in place to identify users who create new accounts to get around a ban.
    – jonrsharpe
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:58
  • 1
    I don’t disagree that there’s cases where it would be fair to allow the OP to delete their question - but that should really be a case for moderator intervention rather than an automated feature.
    – Pekka
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 13:58
  • 1
    You thought you'd get a better reaction if you were vaguer? Have you considered getting data to try to support: 1. Whether it's actually a problem; or 2. Where a sensible cut off might be? This seems a little underdone as presented. You proposed this; it's your job to provide the evidence.
    – jonrsharpe
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 14:07
  • 3
    But this suggestion wouldn’t be addressing the ask/delete problem; it would just (conditionally) remove one of the things we have in place to fight that problem. No? I don’t think what you are suggesting is necessarily a bad idea, but the way it is presented seems confusing.
    – Pekka
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 14:30
  • 3
    Incidents on meta are like plane crashes, there is no news report every time a plane successfully lands, similarly no one complains when the system works as expected.
    – user4639281
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 21:41

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
9

I don’t disagree that there’s cases where it would be fair to allow the OP to delete their question, or disassociate it from their account.

Both should really be a case for moderator intervention, though, rather than an automated feature. Misuse of it would be too hard to detect.

3
  • Thank you very much for the understanding of the problem of the sticked questions (up). I think the problem of the mod interventions is in this case, that it is questionable if a sticked question would be exceptional; furthermore the mod would have to delete also the answers, including the reps collected with them, what is most probably against their intentions and customs. What would you think from a mod deleting your (possibly upvoted) post on the request of a low-rep account? No, they don't have any reason to cooperate with a new account in this case, and they have imho right.
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 14:11
  • If I accept your answer, you won't be able to delete it and maybe it will seem in the future that you were "feeding trolls". Should I accept it or not?
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 21:26
  • 1
    @peterh feel free to accept; I don’t think you’re a troll. If I ever felt like I don’t want to be associated with this Q&A (which is unlikely) I’d ask for the question to be disassociated from my account. I agree being a SO newbie, and being stuck with a highly downvoted question can be a very unpleasant and discouraging experience, but this isn’t the way to fix that.
    – Pekka
    Commented Oct 9, 2016 at 21:30

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