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In October I asked a question, How do I make apps in my optional package run using the virtualized file system/registry of the main package?

In December someone gave an answer to it. In the meantime, my work had made changes to our plans which made the question irrelevant, and I had forgotten about the question. So when I was reminded of it, I wanted to close it or mark it somehow so that no one else would put a lot of effort into answering it.

But your list of "reasons to close a question" doesn't include an option that says "I don't care about this question any more", so I can't close it without lying about the reason. I would like to take a moment to say that it's really stupid that you have a hardcoded set of reasons for closing a question with no free-text "other" option, because people will always come up with edge cases that haven't been anticipated by the person coming up with the list.

I just deleted the question because I know of no other means of disavowing it.

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  • 32
    That close reason doesn't exist, because Stack Overflow is not your personal help desk and if you care about the question or not doesn't matter to use. Also, there is a "free text" close reason, it is listed under the "A community-specific reason" close option.
    – Tom
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:08
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    You can request for disassociation of a post. But deleting it is also fine. Why would you need a special close reason if you can simply delete it?
    – yivi
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:14
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    I don't think deletion is fine here. A user put time and effort into answer it, and then it just gets deleted? Since when is deleting a perfectly fine Q&A okay? I mean, if you don't want notifications, sure, request disassociation, but on the other hand, what's one notification of an answer on a old question?
    – Cerbrus
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:15
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    Whenever the system allows you, @Cerbrus. It's their post, they can delete it if they want. There are circumstances where it's not allowed, but this is not one of them.
    – yivi
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:17
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    @yivi: There's "technically allowed" and there's "right and wrong". There have often been cases where I was technically allowed to cast delete votes, but that would be the wrong thing to do. (Sooooooo many horrendous meta answers by users just to stir up drama)
    – Cerbrus
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:19
  • Voting to undelete that question seem seriously misguided, and wrong, as you say. If someone wants they can just post it again. Why undelete something a user is allowed to delete? They are not vandalizing anything, they simply want to delete their post. Trying to force them to keep it up seems absurdly unfriendly and impractical.
    – yivi
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:20
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    Vice versa for the question answerer.
    – Cerbrus
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:20
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    Why delete a question that really isn't doing anyone any harm, and is potentially useful for future visitors? Why rob the answerer of the opportunity to educate someone and potentially get some rep, wasting the time and effort they put into it? That seems selfish and wrong.
    – Cerbrus
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:22
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    The answerer doesn't have the rep to see deleted questions. I mean, you're not incorrect that they could repost it, but that's just blindly following the rules to the letter.
    – Cerbrus
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:23
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    Is that so? I honestly don't remember how that worked. Either way, how should they know this happened? They're not getting a notification...
    – Cerbrus
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:24
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    I casted the final undelete vote on that question because it's preferable that questions being discussed on Meta are visible (unless they really need to not be visible).
    – PM 2Ring
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:44
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    Totally baffled that someone can be here for nearly 12 years and still not realise that the intention of SO is to provide answers for the whole internet to use and not just a single individual.
    – user438383
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 15:47
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    @user438383: We are victims of the pervasive forum mindset. Even by the CEO who should know better.
    – Peter Mortensen
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 17:39
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    Re "...really stupid that you have a hardcoded set of reasons for closing a question with no free-text "other" option: But there is a free-text "other" option: "Close" → "A community-specific reason" → "Other - add a comment". The default text fragment is "I’m voting to close this question because", but it can also be changed. It works on both MSO and Stack Overflow main.
    – Peter Mortensen
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 17:41
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    Though being a duplicate, and heavily downvoted, I am not going to delete vote this question, because it very much pinpoints, that Stack Overflow isn't a personal help center, and as soon questions are unleashed for wrong mindsets, you have to accept, they're no longer under your personal control here.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 19:34

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You seem to be ignoring the fact here that you do not ask questions purely for yourself; you ask them for the greater good to help more people. You personally not caring about an answer anymore does not invalidate the question and it should not be closed or deleted for that reason, an answer can still help other people.

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  • Can you demonstrate the existence of another person who cares about an answer to that question? Anyone answering that question is potentially just shouting into the void, because I don't care about it any more.
    – Hammerite
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:18
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    @Hammerite can you demonstrate the non-existence of any person who'd be interested in the future?
    – VLAZ
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:25
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    @Hammerite if it was only ever going to be useful to you, should you have asked it here in the first place? The point of SO is to seed Q&As that will have enduring value beyond the OP.
    – jonrsharpe
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 11:32
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    @Hammerite The Builder teaches us to build towards the future, not the present.
    – Gimby
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 12:43
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    @Hammerite: Related: xkcd 979
    – Peter Mortensen
    Commented Jan 7, 2022 at 17:53

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