Hi everyone. A cautionary tale for you all...
So I asked a question on SO earlier today, where I wanted to know if there was a correct industry standard way (like ISO approved) to write the /* and */ symbols used in the C language. (Thinking more of typography than ASCII code points.) It may seem an eccentric thing to ask, but I have my reasons.
It was quickly closed off as "not programmer related". Seemed strange to me, a question about a programming language is not about programming? At first, I went though the motions of calling for it to be reopened, but I looked again and decided I could have asked the question in a more general way, so to be more useful to the community and not look quite so eccentric.
I could have just changed the text to ask the question differently, but my then the question was closed and the answers already given wouldn't have made any sense with my reworded question.
So, I changed tack and clicked the delete button. By now, it was too late and I needed four more votes. I changed the question text to just "Please delete this question" in the hope that people would come along and help by also clicking the delete button. Only problem there was that other people came along and kept putting the original text back. (For well meaning reasons, I'm sure.)
So now, I'm in the situation of being voted down (and losing rep points?) for something I don't want and have tried to delete. sigh
Question in haste, repent in leisure.