Question

It seems like once a question is a community wiki, it can't be changed back from a community wiki to a regular question. I realize only the author and a moderator can do this, but I think everything should be reversible.

Answer 1

This functionality is crucial to a new site. There are new members joining and answering CW questions missing out on reputation.

Answer 2

[...] but I think everything should be reversible.

I agree.

According to this post: Ability to undo the Community Wiki, the original developers of Stack Overflow don't even envision a reason to undo a wiki. So, no. You cannot currently undo a wiki setting.

I have a feeling that, when converting to wiki, some changes are made to the database that would be difficult to reverse. But that's just me speculating why the feature might not exist.

Answer 3

This could always be made one of the "high reputation" abilities, then anyone who could do it would have high enough reputation that they wouldn't worry about gaming the system.

However, I'm not really sure what "exploits and gaming" would be possible by allowing one to reclaim their question. I can see how it might be so for answers: start an answer, make it community wiki, everyone else adds to it, claim it back. But I would have thought it safe enough for questions.

Moreover, one could say that upon reclaiming, no reputation is accrued.

Answer 4

Referring to the Stack Overflow FAQ:

There is no way to reclaim your post back from community wiki mode. This is to prevent exploits and gaming of the system.

Presumably this would also apply for StackExchange. There may be further details to be found on Meta Stack Overflow.