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Specific question: why was this question (Best programming aids for a quadriplegic programmer) deleted?

I asked that question a number of years ago (April, '10). I just recently went looking for it to point someone else to the answers (he was asking a question on meta about his closed question on a similar topic). I was surprised to find that the list of 3 questions I have ever asked on SO was now 2. The only way I could even get a link to my own question was by clicking on the Great Question badge I received for it.

It's not like this was a question that didn't get any interest at the time: 126 up votes (and 1 down), 2,500 views, top answer (from a high-rep member with disabilities) had 92 ups, and there were a total of 8 answers from users who have a combined rep of about 200,000. So it wasn't exactly yet-another-question about how to do 1+1 in C#.

Yet on 1/15/2013, the SO mod Will deleted it. He didn't lock it, he didn't close it, he didn't migrate it, he deleted it, and there was no reason given.

Note: About the only thread on meta that seems to address this issue directly was back in 11/2009 (Add Delete Reasons like we have Close Reasons asked by cletus, 27K), and got 2 fairly weak answers: one from Shog9, and the other one from Jeff. Every other thread seems to be focused on deleted answers.

So to repeat the question: why was this question deleted?

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  • When you say you dont care about the points, (which mysteriously don't seem to have changed) I've been seeing points deducted when my answers are deleted... on Stack Overflow. Like this one: -10 Feb 28 removed how to load .xml files that have attributes to a list?
    – Jeremy Thompson
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 1:14
  • and on the same day I get +1 for this: +1 Feb 28 removed Get file AND directory info in a treeListView in c#
    – Jeremy Thompson
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 1:24
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    If you read the rest of that sentence you'll see that I was surprised that they didn't get deducted. Like I said, I've only asked 3 questions (in 4 years) so I don't know how the Great Accountant handles such things.
    – Peter Rowell
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 1:27
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    @PeterRowell Posts with +3 or more and older than 60 days keep the rep when they get deleted.
    – Mysticial
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 1:41
  • @Mysticial: thank you for the clarification. BTW: Go Illini! I first learned / taught programming on PLATO IV in 1973, although I was at UICC, not UIUC. Good luck at Google!
    – Peter Rowell
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 1:50
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    I'll repeat what I put on Robert's answer: My gut reaction: Will absolutely did the right thing in this situation. A post with only 2500 views is not worth a historical lock. This is a perfect example of how we dilute the efficacy of historical locks by placing it on things that don't deserve it. We can't just fall back to historical locks because not everyone doesn't like deletes. There are some things that must be deleted. A simple undelete would have sufficed, and the mods would have laid off since it wasn't gaining delete votes or in danger of being deleted.
    – casperOne
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 8:29
  • Some other notes: 1) Don't try to read minds (i.e. "Will decided it was trash"). It does nothing to help your case, and frankly, you don't know what he thought of it. It's a pseudo attack on him and is not constructive. 2) No reason has to be given when something is deleted. If you want a more elaborate reason, you do what you did here, you come to meta. There's no need for your indignation here, this is the cycle of the site and how it's supposed to be.
    – casperOne
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 8:34
  • @gnat I've removed the historical lock tag. Because the question was historically locked doesn't mean that the question was about or requested a historical lock. It was about why the question was deleted. The historical lock was what came as a result. Tags are not meant to clarify results, but the question.
    – casperOne
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 8:36
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    @casperOne statement that question did not "requested a historical lock" is somewhat slippery don't you thingk? "It's not like this was a question that didn't get any interest at the time: 126 up votes (and 1 down), 2,500 views, top answer (from a high-rep member with disabilities) had 92 ups, and there were a total of 8 answers from users who have a combined rep of about 200,000. So it wasn't exactly yet-another-question about how to do 1+1 in C#..." I would go into further discussion on it if these matters felt important to me but I don't care about hist-locks, do whatever you want
    – gnat
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 8:41
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    @gnat What you've quoted just seems like reasons (note, all of which don't really matter) people try to use to justify why things shouldn't be deleted/closed, which is what was done in this case. I see nothing in there that says "Oh, can I have a historical lock" but reads "this question is so great I can't believe it was closed/deleted/etc."
    – casperOne
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 8:43
  • @casperOne: You just gave us a beautiful demonstration of another, more subtle form of revisionism -- quietly editing the question to your liking. Clearly this was a personal, subjective statement on my part -- not on your part, but on my part. You first chastised me for my word choice (which is your prerogative), but then you changed my words. This isn't SO, this is meta.SO, which means that by its very nature this forum is chock-a-block with personal opinions. So how many other personal opinions have you edited over the years, and do you understand why that is so wrong?
    – Peter Rowell
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 18:46
  • What did I change? Do you know what Will thought of the post? No, you didn't, it was non-constructive and regardless of whether or not they are your thoughts, the fact of the matter is we still don't appreciate attacks on anyone (it was libel). The second sentence that I removed, as well as the last paragraph has nothing to do with the essence of your post, so I removed them in the interest of keeping the post focused.
    – casperOne
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 18:54
  • @casperOne: Wow. I never dreamed you would be so upfront about stating your position. From your own blog's About the Author: "I'm just another guy who is trying to harness the power of the internet to feed his ego by projecting myself onto the masses." So there appears to be at least one area where we are in agreement.
    – Peter Rowell
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 18:55
  • That said, I put a note in the revision history as to why this was done, and the revision history is clear that I only made deletes, I didn't reword anything of yours. And, I apologize for how harsh this is, but on meta, you are still subject to the cc-Wiki license. It's not your content the moment you submit it. You're just credited as the originator. Editing meta posts for clarity is in the essence of Stack Exchange, just like any other site, as long as you respect the intent of the author. Your intent was "why was my question deleted" which was preserved.
    – casperOne
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 18:56
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    @casperOne: Hey, I just wanted to know who was on the other end of this conversation. I went to your SE profile and followed the link that you supplied. If you don't like the sound of your own words ... edit them.
    – Peter Rowell
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 19:01

1 Answer 1

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It was flagged as Off-Topic/Not Constructive; Will responded accordingly. Reputation points do not get removed upon post deletion, if the post has been on the site for longer than 60 days, and has a score of 3 or more.

I've undeleted it, and put a historical lock on it.

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  • Hi Robert is there any threads that discuss what I was talking about? -10 and +1 what does that mean?
    – Jeremy Thompson
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 1:34
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    If you've been here for any length of time, you already know that the post is both off-topic and not constructive. I've given it the courtesy of a historical lock, since questions like this were acceptable at the time it was first posted.
    – user102937
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 1:36
  • This is what I needed to know: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/125262/…
    – Jeremy Thompson
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 1:41
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    @RobertHarvey: Thank you for that, I do appreciate it. I still wonder about my broader (and possibly unacceptable?) question: Whither SO? Whither PSE? Is there no room for anything that can't be answered with a code snippet on pastebin? I don't ask this to be provocative or argumentative, I'm genuinely concerned.
    – Peter Rowell
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 2:46
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    @PeterRowell: There really isn't room for subjective questions that cannot be answered definitively; the principle that "real questions have answers" is a fundamental principle of the SE framework. Chatty, open-ended questions are a real problem on other forums. If you're genuinely concerned, consider asking a question here on Meta, something to the effect of "How can we allow some quality objective questions while disallowing the real stinkers?"
    – user102937
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 3:57
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    @RobertHarvey: Fair enough. I understand, even if I don't completely agree. There are questions that are very real, but which can only be answered by personal, subjective experience. I guess this shift in focus (or perhaps tightening of focus) is a primary reason that others (notably on PSE) are looking at venues outside the confines of SE; ones that allow more latitude in both questions and answers. Obviously there still needs to be some type of quality control, but perhaps of a different sort than I see being manifested here.
    – Peter Rowell
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 6:19
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    Gut reaction: A post with only 2500 views is not worth a historical lock. This is a perfect example of how we dilute the efficacy of historical locks by placing it on things that don't deserve it. We can't just fall back to historical locks because not everyone doesn't like deletes. There are some things that must be deleted.
    – casperOne
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 8:24
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    60 days, not 90 and only if the post had 3 net score when deleted.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 8:30

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