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When a question is migrated, it ends up being locked on the origin site. This is good so that the question doesn't completely disappear, confusing the asker, but a side effect of being locked is that the asker can't delete the question on their own. It's also impossible to flag a locked post and request for it to be deleted. Deleting the stub is not without precedent - Jeff deleted these yesterday:

The fact that not all the sites were launched at the same time has caused some questions that I've asked on some sites to be more appropriate on other sites (once they existed), and since the primary reason for the stub is for the asker's benefit, I request that the author of a migrated question be allowed to delete it when they feel it's no longer necessary to keep around.

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If SO would properly redirect requests for the old URL to the new one, i'd be completely in favor of this. Heck, i'd argue for automatic deletion from the outset!

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  • I wouldn't go that far, as the migrated question would be removed from the asker's profile, which could lead to some confusion. But as soon as the asker realizes what's happened and deletes the question, it would make sense to redirect the URL instead of returning a 404.
    – Kyle Cronin Mod
    Commented Aug 26, 2009 at 17:35
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IMHO, migrated questions kept on the original site has its benefits. One of which is making it searchable on the original site. Completely deleting the question on the original site allows the same question to be asked again on that site. If the original question is kept and is pointing where it is migrated, at least it can be flagged as a duplicate of a question and then point it to the site where it is migrated.

Edit to answer Kyle: The examples are good to show that some of the question ought to be deleted. But I think not all users should be allowed to delete their own questions because it's not only them who may benefit from the question, but the community as well. I think it's just right that those who have more power/rep be allowed to delete their own questions.

Although it would be nice to allow the flagging of the migrated question to be deleted. I have that similar case where my question is an exact duplicate but accumulated some answers so I cannot delete it.

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