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I know this type of question usually attracts a lot of flak, but it's the first time this happens to me and I'm really curious what caused my answer to be deleted.

Making a Thread propagate Exception to upper Thread

I'm pretty sure it must have been a "not an answer" flag by someone, but I don't see which point of the FAQ I've violated. Assuming the OP did not find the answer completely useful (which I guess happens sometimes) I do feel it was related to the question and provided at least some useful information.

Furthermore, it was also the only answer to the question. At that time I found the question to a bit vague, so I was hoping to be able to gather more info about what the OP really wanted (a solution, an alternative, etc.) and maybe improve the answer.

Please understand that I'm not trying to (unreasonably) argue with anybody, I absolutely love SO and I just want to become a better participant.

Edit: Oh right, sorry for the people who cannot see the answer.

screenshot

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  • 3
    I'm not an expert in the domain, but this looks like a mistake. Even if it had not been an answer, the comments in it alone would justify letting it live
    – Pekka
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 7:59
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    It's pretty much a link-only answer. You ought to know that such answers are discouraged, and you ought to give a more substantial explanation.
    – Manishearth
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 8:01
  • @ManishEarth wants more waffles: I thought about this, but the question itself was pretty vague and it was not clear whether he wanted a direct fix to his problem or a suggestion for an alternative or both. Besides, it was the only answer to the question anyway, so I thought I'd gather more info from comments and improve it...
    – Tudor
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 8:06
  • @Manish if the links actually answer the question, I find it hard to see something wrong with it. It does have explanations and substantial discussion in comments
    – Pekka
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 8:06
  • @Tudor (/cc @discount) Hmm, right--I see the question now. Then there's nothing wring with it in that aspect, IMO (though the discussion in the comments should have been incorporated--can't blame you if it was deleted beforehand)
    – Manishearth
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 8:17
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    I dunno... I flag lot of "not an answer" based on links-only, and I would never have flagged this one. It does make an attempt to answer the question, in my own view. If that's why is was deleted, apparently someone disagreed. ;)
    – Andrew Barber
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 8:30
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    I wouldn't have flagged it either. I'm not convinced you answered the question correctly, but it does look like an answer. Getting it wrong isn't grounds for flagging. :-)
    – Donal Fellows
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 8:38
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    This is a very tough call. The first statement in the answer has value, but could easily be a comment. The links just elaborate on the statement. Content from the links would have been preferable and possibly avoided this.
    – casperOne Mod
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 10:46
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    Oh, and upvotes != legitimacy or quality
    – casperOne Mod
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 10:49
  • @casperOne: Thank you for your insight. Regarding your last comment, I agree that upvotes are not necessarily a measure of quality, but it means that at least two people found some of the information useful. I do not want to suggest that I find it wrong that the answer was deleted because it had +2. I know better that this and originally the title was "Why was this answer deleted", which was not accepted because of a title collision, so I added the +2. It was not an argument in my favor by any means.
    – Tudor
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 11:35
  • I've changed the title to mitigate this issue.
    – Tudor
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 11:38
  • @Tudor should also be noted that votes != usefulness. Ideally they are indicators of quality and usefulness, but in reality they only thing that that can be said is that they are a reliable indicator of is popularity. Beyond that it's anyone's guess. Thanks for changing the title though. I get not having dupe titles on meta is tough.
    – casperOne Mod
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 11:49
  • @casperOne: I guess my "beef" with the situation is that there was no other attempt to answer the question so far and no clear feedback by the OP saying whether the answer was useful/useless/incomplete, etc. I would have been more than willing to do additional digging and improve my answer if the OP needed more info. As such I posted a small suggestion and some links to try to probe what he was looking for, but I guess my attempt was cut short.
    – Tudor
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 11:55

1 Answer 1

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I went ahead an undeleted it. That answer was flagged and deleted because it's an exact duplicate of the answer you left on Safe to throw an exception created on another thread C#. In the future if you think two questions are the same, vote to close one of them as a duplicate. If they're not the same, take the time to address the specific problem in each question.

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  • 2
    ahhhh... Now it makes complete sense!
    – Andrew Barber
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 12:21
  • Alright thanks a lot. In fact I was searching around on meta about what's right to do regarding duplicate answers to similar questions, but didn't find anything clear. My first impulse, like I said, was to leave it and see what the OP says and then tune it further from there. My feeling is that the questions are not completely identical.
    – Tudor
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 12:22
  • @Tudor Yeah, on second look I agree, this was a borderline flag. The questions are different enough that they can both stay, but that means that the answers should probably be somewhat different.
    – Bill the Lizard
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 12:29
  • @Bill the Lizard: I agree with that. Anyway, I am monitoring the question for further input from the OP. I would gladly delete my own answer if someone else posted something more useful.
    – Tudor
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 12:31

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