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I use this post frequently to post comments on SO questions that don't meet the quality guidelines for the site. I find it helps me to do my part in helping the moderators keeping the site clean. It is a valuable tool for me.

I've added it to my favorites so that I can easily link back to it.

Today when I was making such a comment (on this question) I found that the post no longer appears in my search.

I suspect it's been deleted, which I can't tell because my rep on MSO is too low.

What's happened to this post?

Improve this question
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  • See Stack Overflow Is
    – Martijn Pieters
    Jun 29, 2012 at 11:33
  • See meta.stackexchange.com/questions/137863/…. I had same question in mind.
    – Somnath Muluk
    Jun 29, 2012 at 11:36
  • 2
    Wow. No matter how many times I try to give it a chance, StackExchange just keeps finding new ways to make me want to invest less of my valuable time here.
    – John Dibling
    Jun 29, 2012 at 13:29
  • @ThiefMaster is there no way to set up a redirect to the new version of the question, instead of just showing an unhelpful "page not found" error? As this question has already been asked multiple times, and I suspect it will be asked multiple more times...
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Jun 29, 2012 at 13:33
  • No, but feel free to suggest it. However, what would happen in case of a 10k+ user opening it? He should still be able to see the original question.
    – ThiefMaster
    Jun 29, 2012 at 13:34
  • @AaronBertrand In theory, people should go to it, read the first sentence ("This question was removed from Meta Stack Overflow for reasons of moderation"), and know it was deleted. If they want more info, the instinct should be to search for it, where they'll find a post that starts "I just deleted What Stack Overflow Is Not" very early in the results. The problem is users not doing either of those things, and skipping straight to asking a new question
    – Michael Mrozek
    Jun 29, 2012 at 14:14
  • 1
    @MichaelMrozek: Did you actually try that? I did exactly what you said, and more. I searched for the q, and found nothing, not even "WSOI". I looked in my favorites, and it wasn't there. I searched posts on SO where I know I linked it, and couldn't find it. When I started asking a new question, which is always my last resort, I looked in the suggested duplicates and didn't see one.
    – John Dibling
    Jun 29, 2012 at 14:23
  • 1
    @MichaelMrozek: When I tried your search link, I do see it. But try this one, which is what I actually did: what stack overflow is not
    – John Dibling
    Jun 29, 2012 at 14:26
  • @JohnDibling Well, you searched for the wrong title, and SO's search isn't the greatest. Ideally now that your duplicate contains the title variation, people should find that one instead; my point was we don't need a special case to handle this where the deleted post redirects to the new version
    – Michael Mrozek
    Jun 29, 2012 at 14:50
  • 2
    @MichaelMrozek: I searched for the title of the post. I guess this just reaffirms your assertion that "SO's search isn't the greatest." If searching the the actual title of the post yields nothing, then SO's search is, indeed, broken.
    – John Dibling
    Jun 29, 2012 at 14:54
  • @JohnDibling Oh, you're right. I was thinking of the replacement post (which is "Stack Overflow Is", not "What Stack Overflow Is"); I didn't realize they don't match up. In any case, yes, evil search, but the whole reason to leave duplicate posts undeleted is to make it easier to search for things
    – Michael Mrozek
    Jun 29, 2012 at 14:57

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