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Recently I got nine downvotes for one of my questions which I think is OK to be asked in Stack Overflow:

Is the preprocessor macro "#define TRUE FALSE'" valid?

The question is on hold, and it got downvoted even after being on hold.

Is there a way that I can delete that question or should it be removed from Stack Overflow?

Note:

  • It's quite embarrassing for ones` profile to have a question with 9 downvotes. :(
  • I learnt the lesson. I'll improve my future questions. :/

Update:

One of the answers of a similar question states:

Once you get eight downvotes, you pretty much disappear (edits won't bounce you to the front page).

I'm not sure how true this statement is. But if it is true, even if I edit my question, it won't show up to the front page so no one will see the edit and no one will upvote and the question will always have downvotes.

Improve this question
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  • You could easily flag the question and request from a moderator to disassociate your account from the post.
    – Lix
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 10:58
  • @Lix I already flagged for deletion.
    – TheKojuEffect
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 10:59
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    It has upvoted answers, so no, you can't delete it. You could ask for your account name to be disassociated with it though.
    – JonW
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 10:59
  • @JonW Looked for disassociating but I couldn't find. How do I disassociate a question from my account?
    – TheKojuEffect
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 11:01
  • I believe you just flag it under other and explain you want it disassociated, your request cannot be refused
    – Richard Tingle
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 11:05
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    That's exactly what I said in my first comment. You make that request in a custom flag.
    – Lix
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 11:05
  • Thanks, I'll try disassociating later but first I'll try improving the question.
    – TheKojuEffect
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 11:09
  • You can flag it, but that doesn't guarantee disassociation.
    – Stijn
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 11:13
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    You can always hope for The Meta Effect - you actually have 14 downvotes and 7 upvotes currently. Perhaps it will move to a more neutral balance.
    – user213634
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 12:44
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    @AndersUP The meta effect is so finely balenced and difficult to predict, I have seen posts only subley different from this attract a hail of downvotes. It even seems to have been reopened!
    – Richard Tingle
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 13:47
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    About [DUPLICATE] The answer on meta.stackexchange.com/questions/552/… suggests to edit the question. Please Check out the Update in my question.
    – TheKojuEffect
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 15:02
  • @RichardTingle It certainly seems to have moved in the wrong direction for the past couple of hours. And yes, it is hard to predict - not something to gamble with up front, but since he was already in the situation there was a slight hope that the Meta effect would be positive.
    – user213634
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 15:27
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    The question 'How will it affect my program?' is open-ended and likely to lead to unconstructive discussion. Probably many downvotes are because of it.
    – Cjxcz Odjcayrwl
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 15:37
  • @TheKojuEffect The front page is only one place people see things, I largly browse off the [java] page for example
    – Richard Tingle
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 16:10
  • @ŁukaszLech Some one edited the question and I just missed it.
    – TheKojuEffect
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 16:28

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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If all your other questions are good, you could delete it. Seriously, there is hardly anything you can do to improve it, and one bad, deleted question among many good ones will not trigger a question ban. But since your question has upvoted answers, that's not an option now.

There is a way to make it better: Describe with details what thinking path led you to asking it. Probably it was some weird idea than by itself wasn't so bad, but just got boiled down to a bad question? Adding some juice back might bring it out of its depth. And even if not, mentioning that you have realized the error of your ways and proof you tried to improve might stop the further down-votes.

Edits will bump it back to front, so leaving it be and hoping it will simply get forgotten might also be a safe option.

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  • 2
    or, it could bring up a few more due to the edit bump.
    – John Dvorak
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 12:43
  • @JanDvorak true enough.
    – Mołot
    Commented Sep 23, 2013 at 12:44
  • @Mołot Please see my updated question.
    – TheKojuEffect
    Commented Sep 24, 2013 at 3:02
  • @TheKojuEffect dye to meta effect you was at -7 when I wrote, so -8 disappearance did not apply.
    – Mołot
    Commented Sep 24, 2013 at 6:15

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