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My question stems from seeing this post.

Normally, I try to discourage link only answers by either prompting the user to add more information, down voting, and/or flagging if the post is from a while back. The reason being that if the link goes down, then the answer is useless. But an SO link is unlikely to ever be down, unless the whole site is down, in which case nobody will see the answer to begin with.

So what to do about SO links? And what about deleted ones, and the majority of users will be unable to see them?

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  • I wonder how many mod flags on that answer will be generated because of this post?!
    – Taryn
    Commented Jun 12, 2013 at 11:50
  • Also don't forget that it should be a comment anyway.
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Commented Jun 12, 2013 at 11:51

2 Answers 2

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14

The answer only contains a link. That link is dead. So the answer is obviously useless. Flag for deletion.

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  • yeah, I guess this is correct. My concern was that the link is not 100% broken, as I can see the post just fine.
    – musefan
    Commented Jun 12, 2013 at 11:59
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    But the majority of users on SO (99% I guess) can't see the link. And users just browsing the site without even an account can't either.
    – juergen d
    Commented Jun 12, 2013 at 12:24
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If it links to a deleted post on SO it's essentially the same as a dead link, since for a large number of users of the site it doesn't lead anywhere. Handle it the same way as any other link only answer: flag it for moderator attention.

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