When should I delete my unanswered questions?

Question

Last week I wrote a question in Game Development, and I noticed that no one has answered it nor comment it (it only has one comment).

Maybe my question is too broad, too complex or too strange, I am not sure, because it's my first question on the site and my first time making a game, so I'm not sure how to explain it. But the important thing is that I posted the question 8 days ago, and I still doesn't have an answer.

Also, I don't know how much time it usually could take, but I never saw a question that didn't have an answer in less than 4 days (without being downvoted or closed), so I am starting thinking that maybe I shall delete my own question. Shall I delete it?

Actually the question doesn't have any answer, and maybe it would never have one, so it's just trash. It takes space in the site, making the search of other questions on the site slightly more difficult and it doesn't provide useful information.

Does it have any positive use on Stack Exchange?

Answer 1

No need to delete it.

Many good questions go unanswered simply because no one has a good answer at the time. That's not a bad thing. Deleting the question will definitely not benefit anyone, while leaving the question there, will leave the possibility of someone finding it one day, and answering it.

But if you feel that it wasn't answered because it was too general, or hard to answer, in that case, try editing it to make it easier to understand and answer, or consider splitting it into a few questions, which might help you get an answer faster.

"When shall I delete my unanswered question?"

You should delete your question, if it's:

• off topic

• word for word duplicate

• or anything else that does not belong on the site in the first place.

Answer 2

It might be unanswered because it's hard and the right person hasn't come along yet. Or it might be unanswered because the community considers it basic and boring. Or it might be unanswered because it's kind of broad or unclear but not enough so to have been put on hold. For a first-time user, it's really hard to tell.

I've seen people get useful input by asking on the per-site meta how you can improve the question. Tell them what you've told us -- you're new, you asked, you haven't gotten any specific feedback, but your question doesn't seem to be going anywhere and you'd like help learning the ropes. Sometimes people don't leave constructive criticism in comments because they're afraid of a bad reaction, but if you openly ask for help they'll be more comfortable giving it.

If the site has an active chat room, you can ask for help there too. I've gotten help that way when trying to frame my first question on a site.

If your question is downvoted (or closed and not upvoted), the Roomba will eventually delete it. If the question passes the Roomba's test and you're still interested in getting an answer, then leave it up. If the question fails the Roomba's test then it'll get deleted automatically anyway, so you can keep or delete it as you like. If you decided to solve the problem some other way and no longer care about the question, feel free to delete it.