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deleting own question, when it’s closed

Currently when your question gets closed there is a 2 days wait before you can delete it, to allow for possible re-opening.

The reason for this is very clear to me, but why can't you, as the owner of your question, decide you really don't want to have it on the site anymore? I have been around for almost a year now and I have gathered about 1.4k rep. I actually know that the question I'm trying to remove is never going to be re-opened.

So could we have at least some privilege that says I can remove my question because I know what I'm doing?

I also suggest that the owner can always delete a closed question, but with a warning rather than a forced wait, like:

If you're deleting this because it got closed, consider waiting a day or 2 to see if doesn't get reopened. Click to dismiss, press delete again to confirm.

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    Note that deleting downvoted, closed questions counts against you in the automatic-question-ban script. How often is this happening to you?
    – Martijn Pieters
    Dec 7, 2012 at 20:50
  • @MartijnPieters I must admit that it does not happen often as in "on a daily basis", but I remember having had this at least 3 times in the past 2 months or so, but more on other SE sites. And what other reason could I have for deleting a question because it clearly was bad? The downvotes and closure tell me that, and second consideration confirms me that.
    – MarioDS
    Dec 7, 2012 at 20:52
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    I am just questioning the need, and the wisdom of being able to delete the question immediately.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Dec 7, 2012 at 20:53
  • @MartijnPieters well you could argue there is a real need, the only one I can think of is that I don't want to have particular questions on my name. On the other hand why is there a need to force the 2 day wait?
    – MarioDS
    Dec 7, 2012 at 20:55
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    Because questions are not just your own, they are for and of the community too. We don't want you to just delete a question for the sake of it, preventing the community to benefit from it. Yes, this applies to downvoted, closed questions too, as we can also edit your question and improve it.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Dec 7, 2012 at 20:57
  • If anything, the 2 day wait gives the question plenty of time to get lots of downvotes so that it feeds the question ban.
    – Mysticial
    Dec 7, 2012 at 20:58
  • @MartijnPieters that makes sense, but what doesn't is closing questions just because they are of poor quality and can be made into something better. Closing happens too fast sometimes, I only feel it is necessary if a question is truly off-topic or else unsalveagable.
    – MarioDS
    Dec 7, 2012 at 21:00
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    Mario, I disagree about closing happening too fast . Crap should be closed as fast as possible. The asker had lots of time to polish the question before posting it, and we don't want to incentivice crap in any way at all. Most communities that dies does so because of crap not being filtered out. The responsibility is on the asker to create a well-formulated question. Sorry for biting on this OT discussion, it should be held somewhere else, really.
    – Emil Vikström
    Dec 7, 2012 at 21:25
  • If you don't want your name associated to poor questions, don't ask poor questions! (Also, questions can be reopened once they are improved.)
    – hayd
    Dec 8, 2012 at 0:12
  • @hayden the question in particular that made me start this discussion is from when I was still new on SO.
    – MarioDS
    Dec 8, 2012 at 0:22

1 Answer 1

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Deleting a question should be a last resort for a question that has no value and as such the forced wait should remain. The entire reason questions are closed instead of deleted outright is to give them a chance to be improved and molded into something worthwhile. Waiting gives each question a chance for that gem to be found, and if none exists 2 days isn't devastating for a question to stick around.

The waiting period gives a user time to realize their question was bad, believe it or not most users don't live on the site. Allowing earlier deletion could remove the feedback loop to help users improve.

Instant deletion is already possible by authors before the question has been answered, and by moderators for the truly exceptional case. I'm not convinced that there are a significant number of questions that are poor enough to deserve deletion immediately after closure that don't warrant moderator intervention.

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    note that not only mods can insta-deleted close questions, it's a 20k privilage. Mods can just do it in 1 vote instead of 3.
    – Servy
    Dec 7, 2012 at 21:28
  • @Servy 3 people voting isn't really instant
    – Ryathal
    Dec 7, 2012 at 21:31
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    @Ryathal: You can vote to delete instantly when over 20k. Others have to wait 2 days.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Dec 7, 2012 at 21:32

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