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Why is the delete text under my question, but when I press it, it say something like. 'Can not be deleted since, there are answer so.. flag it instead.'

So, my question is why keep the text there, if someone has answered my question. Shouldn't it just disappear since, it has no other purpose there

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  • 7
    aint nobody got time to code for that
    – Michel
    Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 19:42
  • 2
    If they deleted the delete button, then perhaps you wouldn't learn about flagging. Deleting is more intuitive than flagging, even if flagging is the desired action, so leaving the button there is a matter of discoverability of the preferred mechanism. (This may have nothing to do with their thought process, of course.)
    – Anthony Pegram
    Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 19:44
  • Users with the privilege are able to vote to delete questions.
    – Kermit
    Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 19:44
  • I'm going to upvote this, but raise the objection that removing the delete option would make things look out of place... I think it should be there for continuity.
    – ɥʇǝS
    Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 19:46
  • 5
    Because otherwise you get questions like these
    – Matt
    Commented Apr 29, 2013 at 20:01
  • This question has been raised on Meta Stack Overflow as well.
    – anonymous
    Commented Dec 26, 2021 at 21:07

1 Answer 1

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Removing it or disabling would probably leaving you wondering why you can't delete that question when you could others, and then you'd have to ask or search on meta why. It's better to let you try and then tell you.

From Don't hide or disable menu items

A long time ago, it became fashionable, even recommended, to disable menu items when they could not be used.

Don't do this. Users see the disabled menu item that they want to click on, and are left entirely without a clue of what they are supposed to do to get the menu item to work.

Instead, leave the menu item enabled. If there's some reason you can't complete the action, the menu item can display a message telling the user why.

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