-3

This new user just asked two (poor quality) questions about selecting a random image with PHP. The second was pretty much a duplicate of the first and the first, in its current state, deserved to be closed.

I thought I'd type a longer comment, with a fragment of code, to help a user who was evidently struggling. As is my usual practice I wrote a comment on on the second question, copied it to clipboard, and submitted it - only to find the question deleted. I surfed back to the user's first question (still in my browser history) to post it there, but found that deleted too.

My understanding of usual moderation policy is this is rather excessive deletion. Sure, the user shouldn't be posting duplicates immediately after a question close, but whilst it is fine to delete the duplicate (though unusual) it is excessive to delete the first one too - it might be rescued, or benefit from comments.

Normally reposted questions are left closed but visible, as it is useful to see this in the user's profile (if they are inclined to post duplicates directly against the advice of a close, that is useful for readers to know). Was the quick deletion right in this case?

Improve this question
14
  • Do you have links to the questions (from your browser history)? That way >10k users could see them as well (along with mods, who can see all deleted questions)
    – David Robinson
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 21:46
  • @DavidRobinson - first, second
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 21:47
  • 1
    Thanks, @Oded. halfer: Neither of those questions were deleted by a moderator, both were deleted by three users with the vote-to-delete privilege voting to delete after the question was closed.
    – David Robinson
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 21:48
  • I believe it's these: here's one and the other.
    – halfer
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 21:48
  • 10
    @halfer - The comments from the user show that they are not interested in participating in the community. They are after an answer and are not willing to put effort into clarifying the question. This has caused the questions to be closed and then deleted fairly quickly by the community itself.
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 21:49
  • @David, thanks. I'm not au fait with what permissions are required for deletion - so I didn't mean a diamond moderator as such - just that the questions were not self-deleted, and that it is not usual policy for poor on-topic questions to be deleted so quickly. Closed is fine, they weren't good questions. But deleted is unusual.
    – halfer
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 21:50
  • @Oded - I'm a frequent close-voter, but nevertheless maybe I am an optimist too, and wonder if occasionally help vampires can be saved. I think these should have remained closed but non-deleted, so that friendly people willing to engage briefly can do so if they choose.
    – halfer
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 21:54
  • 5
    The fact is, we don't have a way to enforce such a policy, even if it existed. I agree that it would be nice, but the OP has been obnoxious and vague enough to have been punished (and unfortunately question banned in the process - there are other deleted questions that you have not seen)
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 21:56
  • 1
    @halfer FYI, there were some fairly recent changes to stop premature deletions. I can't see the deleted questions, but if they didn't meet the criteria that would prevent deletion for a couple of days (score >= -2), then... perhaps there wasn't any reason to keep them around at all?
    – yannis
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 22:03
  • 2
    -5 and -8 @Yannis, and a gimme teh codez with an actual "i dont care" thrown in...
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 22:05
  • @Yannis, certainly the questions were poor. But mine would have been the only friendly voice in a negative void, and sometimes reaching out to the user can modify their behaviour. Unfortunately with both questions deleted, I have no way to offer that comment. Tbf, I don't see that the user was obnoxious, either.
    – halfer
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 22:06
  • 2
    @halfer Well, that's unfortunate, but... there are thousands of other new users who could use your help, and some of them may deserve it a bit more?
    – yannis
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 22:08
  • @Yannis: my question is about policy, rather than just this user. I've been a member of SO for a few years, and never seen an on-topic, closed question deleted so immediately.
    – halfer
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 22:09
  • 4
    @halfer I'm also (sort of) talking policy. Deleting unsalvageable posts quickly helps direct our collective focus to posts (and users) that are a bit more deserving of our time and energy. There's no policy against speedy deletions, except the fairly recent changes I mentioned in an earlier comment. It's true that speedy deletions aren't very common (except in cases like spam), but they aren't forbidden.
    – yannis
    Commented May 19, 2013 at 22:24

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

Was the quick deletion right in this case?

I assume that the deletion of the question was the actual problem, and not how fast it actually happened.

The alternative to deletion was closing, but when closing questions, people could still answer it trough comments.

In case of duplicate question/answer it's right to delete the second one mainly because it's confusing when useful comments or answers are spread between two questions when they can easily be restricted to one (which is good for searching too).

As is my usual practice I wrote a comment on on the second question [...] only to find the question deleted.

You should have expected that and commented only on the first one.

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    Actually the question is very clear: it's about the speed of the deletion, not the deletion itself. There's a reason why we don't let people cast delete votes on a new question unless it has < -2 net votes. It's to limit speedy deletion of things that could be fixed.
    – Nicol Bolas
    Commented May 20, 2013 at 7:20
  • Thanks Jeffrey. I agree that identical dups should be eventually deleted, though I frequently comment upon them to ask users not to repost questions that have been closed. So, there's value in being able to comment on a dup (even if the life of those comments is brief before the question is zapped). As for commenting on the first question; as I say I tried that, and that one was deleted too - which was rather quick for a new question.
    – halfer
    Commented May 20, 2013 at 7:49

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .