Questions tagged [auto-delete]

Auto-deletion (also called 'Roomba') is a process which helps cleaning the site by deleting some questions. Criteria for auto-deletion are based on low score and age of the question.

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0 answers
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Active bounty didn't prevent automatic deletion [duplicate]

According to Prevent questions with bounty from being auto-deleted an active bounty should prevent automatic deletion: We agree, questions that contain an active bounty should not be eligible for ...
Paul White's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
151 views

Do the automated deletion scripts not run on questions that aren't viewed that often?

A couple days ago, someone posted a bug report that a question that qualified for a Roomba automatic deletion criterion wasn't deleted despite qualifying for at least three weekly runs of the script ...
Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
112 views

Should deleted answers prevent a question from being Roomba'ed?

This question should qualify as an abandoned question eligible to be Roomba'ed: it seems to satisfy all criteria. (It has quite some views, but certainly less than the threshold, because it's already ...
Glorfindel's user avatar
  • 248k
15 votes
2 answers
383 views

With limited remaining brain cells, how can I work in a more roomba-aware way (and not lose track of questions permanently)?

I've asked more SE questions than I have remaining brain cells to keep track of them. Sometimes I remember enough about the question to ask for assistance in a site's meta How to get a link to an old ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 6,434
23 votes
1 answer
433 views

Question with an active bounty was mistakenly deleted by the Roomba

How does Canada's radiotelescope CHIME manage polarization-dependent apodization of the fast f/0.25 optics? was previously automatically deleted RemoveAbandonedQuestions and I'd recently found it with ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 6,434
15 votes
1 answer
283 views

If a Roomba-deleted question gets undeleted, please either "reset the timer" or make it exempt from its next runs

If a question deleted by the Roomba gets undeleted, that means that a strong part of the community (at least three 10k+ users, possibly more, possibly also mods) think, yes it should exist. This is ...
peterh's user avatar
  • 5,747
6 votes
1 answer
207 views

What percentage of questions which are deleted by the Roomba later get undeleted?

I'd like to know the percentage of questions that are deleted by Stack Exchange's automated deletion scripts, which later get undeleted, on each site. Initially, I thought I could query for this in ...
Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog's user avatar
46 votes
0 answers
1k views

Decrease the required view count to prevent Roomba deletion when score = 0 on smaller sites

The required view count to avoid auto-deletion of a question when score = 0 is too high. As an example: http://superuser.com/q/1472443/116475 had 562 views within 1.1 year. This is way more views than ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
133 views

Can migrated closed questions be considered for automatic deletion by the RemoveDeadQuestions and RemoveAbandonedClosed scripts?

Migrated questions that were closed a long time after the migration (and as such weren't marked "rejected") are not automatically deleted by the RemoveDeadQuestions and RemoveAbandonedClosed ...
user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
297 views

Why is this question NOT automatically deleted by the RemoveAbandonedClosed script?

This question on Music Fans SE seems to qualify for auto-deletion by the RemoveAbandonedClosed script since it seems to satisfy all the mentioned criteria for deletion. However, I have been tracking ...
user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
123 views

Question deleted under RemoveDeadQuestions does not show negative score at deletion time

A question deleted under RemoveDeadQuestions does not show negative vote at deletion time. From the question timeline (link needs mod access on Earth Science SE): At score 0, it should be removed ...
gerrit's user avatar
  • 9,312
12 votes
2 answers
332 views

How should we handle questions that have been reposted after being deleted due to one downvote + SE's automated process to remove questions?

How should we handle questions that: have been reposted after being deleted due to one downvote + Stack Exchange's automated process to remove questions? received no comments (or all comments were ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
37 votes
3 answers
562 views

RemoveDeadQuestions should not apply to Meta posts

There is an automated system that eventually deletes all unanswered negative scoring questions (as long as they're not locked). I understand why this exists for regular sites – a negative score ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 10.3k
11 votes
1 answer
154 views

Accepted answers should not categorically block auto-deletion of closed questions

tl;dr Allow Roomba to auto-delete a closed question regardless of an accepted answer when the other criteria for auto-deletion are met Roomba should count an answer acceptance as a single upvote to ...
user avatar
40 votes
4 answers
721 views

Modify the 'has 1 or 0 comments' requirement for 'RemoveAbandonedQuestions' script

From the help center, auto-delete section (emphasis is mine): If the question is more than 365 days old, and ... has a score of 0 or less, or a score of 1 and a deleted owner has no answers is not ...
Andre Silva's user avatar
  • 1,942
0 votes
0 answers
71 views

Can ordinary users with access to moderator tools undelete questions deleted by the Community♦ user? [duplicate]

When moderators delete a post, ordinary users cannot vote to undelete. When a question is dead or abandoned, it may be deleted by the Community♦ user (RemoveDeadQuestions, RemoveAbandonedQuestions). ...
gerrit's user avatar
  • 9,312
4 votes
1 answer
86 views

Does undeletion reset the RemoveDeadQuestions clock?

A ~35 day old question with no votes or answers received a downvote resulting in a score of -1, and was deleted under the RemoveDeadQuestions criterion. I have voted to undelete such a question. ...
gerrit's user avatar
  • 9,312
4 votes
1 answer
105 views

What was the original intention for automatically deleting old, unanswered questions with +1 score and a deleted owner?

According to this answer to How does deleting work? What can cause a post to be deleted, and what does that actually mean? What are the criteria for deletion? (which is tagged faq), the Community user ...
iBug says Reinstate Monica's user avatar
23 votes
1 answer
639 views

Why is the script for deletion called Roomba?

In many posts I see that the script for automatic post deletion is called Roomba: Turn off the roomba for child meta sites Turbocharging the Roomba: solutions for premature deletion Lost 5 questions ...
αλεχολυτ's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
195 views

Help page for automatic deletion doesn't explain the rationale for deleting those questions, neither does it explain how to get them undeleted

When users come across their own question that was automatically deleted, they are given a link to the help page on what criteria cause a question to be deleted by the Community user. However, that ...
Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog's user avatar
28 votes
3 answers
2k views

What should I do if I find the answer to an old question of mine that was automatically deleted as abandoned?

I originally asked the question Implementing PPPoE half-bridge/ip-passthrough to suit IPSec VPN firewall appliance with Linux a little more than a year ago, which no one was able to answer. The ...
MeMyselfI's user avatar
  • 401
3 votes
2 answers
93 views

Edit the MSE help page about automatic deletion to remove a criterion that is not enabled here

The help page here on MSE about the roomba says that abandoned questions older than 365 days are deleted in certain cases as RemoveAbandonedQuestions. While this is true on main Q&A sites, as per ...
Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
210 views

Why aren't abandoned questions deleted on meta sites?

A long time ago, I asked this question under my old account. It has a score of 0 (but for a long time had a score of 1 with a deleted owner), has no answers, is not locked, has a low view count, and ...
Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
130 views

Which deletions are not shown in 10k-tools? Are posts deleted by roomba shown there?

As I learned from some other discussions, self-deleted posts are not shown in moderator tools available to 10k+ users. For example: Why are self-deleted posts not shown in the 10k Tools? Are there ...
Martin's user avatar
  • 15.2k
9 votes
1 answer
111 views

Preventing own question from being deleted as abandoned?

I have asked a question (on math.SE) that has not received any upvotes, answers, or comments. I have just discovered that, as per this post, the question may be automatically deleted after 1 year. ...
a3nm's user avatar
  • 217
15 votes
0 answers
332 views

How can I prevent my questions from being removed by roomba (Stack Exchange's automated question deletion system) after a user was removed?

The removal of a user might result in the loss of upvotes on some of my questions, which might in turn result in roomba* (Stack Exchange's automated question deletion system) deleting some of my ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
249 views

Vote invalidation script should undelete questions that were previously wrongly deleted

When SE invalidates votes due to voting irregularities, the script should check whether those votes have caused any posts to be deleted, and undelete them if they wouldn't have been deleted without ...
D.W.'s user avatar
  • 12.4k
14 votes
1 answer
193 views

Why was this question with score of +2 deleted by Community?

The following question was deleted by Community♦ (Roomba): Simulate NPDAs with DTMs using only polynomial overhead Why? What the heck? The help page lists a bunch of criteria under which Roomba ...
D.W.'s user avatar
  • 12.4k
5 votes
1 answer
106 views

Is score or number of upvotes of an answer relevant for the rules about deleting?

This posts gives detailed rules about deleting questions: How does deleting work? What can cause a post to be deleted, and what does that actually mean? What are the criteria for deletion? (I will ...
Martin's user avatar
  • 15.2k
7 votes
1 answer
102 views

How to find closed questions that will not be auto-deleted

There is an auto-deletion process that removes open, abandoned questions, and under certain circumstances, closed questions. But there are many closed questions that are preserved. Looking for those ...
Mogsdad's user avatar
  • 1,584
6 votes
0 answers
138 views

1-year-old questions removed by Roomba: what happened if they are re-asked?

When a question is one-year-old, has received 0 upvote, 0 answer, fewer than 2 comments and not many visitors, it gets automatically removed. Has anyone looked at what happened if such questions are ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
-4 votes
2 answers
178 views

Automatically delete negatively-scored answers after a time

Downvoted, unanswered questions have been subject to automatic deletion for a long time. The same is not true of downvoted answers. On Super User, we have almost ten thousand non-accepted negatively-...
Ben N's user avatar
  • 7,370
23 votes
1 answer
130 views

Auto-fix duplicates of questions deleted by the Roomba

While normal users can no longer vote to delete questions that have other questions closed as duplicates of them, the automatic deletion script (a.k.a. the Roomba) still can, and does, delete such ...
Ilmari Karonen's user avatar
70 votes
2 answers
2k views

Lost 5 questions following a serial downvote

Yesterday, 5 of my questions were downvoted within 2 minutes on one Stack Exchange website (askubuntu). I didn't pay much attention to it as I thought that it would get detected as serial downvote, ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
-1 votes
2 answers
160 views

RemovedAbandonedClosed [duplicate]

Appears that RemovedAbandonedClosed is added after the date of the question removal, if the question is deleted by Community. Though it acts as a reason of removal (:P), I doubt it's intentional?
nicael's user avatar
  • 34.5k
-6 votes
3 answers
159 views

When Roomba deletes a question, add it to the “deleted recent questions” list

When Roomba deletes a question, that would be great if the question always gets added it to the “deleted recent questions” list (or some other list). As of now, questions older than 60 days that ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
152 views

When Roomba deletes a question, does it always end up in the "deleted recent questions" list?

When Roomba deletes a question, does it always end up in the "deleted recent questions" list? If not, in which cases will the question not end up in the "deleted recent questions" ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
175 views

Notify the OP when a question is about to be removed by Roomba

Would it be possible to notify the OP when one of his/her questions is about to be removed by Roomba? I don't think it's very respectful to the OP to delete content without any warning and possibility ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
163 views

What happens to duplicate targets that are eligible for auto-deletion?

A recently added feature blocks the deletion of duplicate targets, even by moderators. A user wishing to delete such a question is advised to reopen or delete the duplicates first. Presumably, ...
user avatar
20 votes
1 answer
276 views

Expanding the roomba to auto-delete self-accepted-answered questions with low views, low scores, and only 1 answer

For background info, read about the current roomba that runs automatically to delete questions. This is a feature-request to add one more rule set on when questions will be auto-deleted by the ...
CRABOLO's user avatar
  • 13.5k
35 votes
2 answers
479 views

Expand the roomba scripts to delete year or more old, up voted, closed questions

Currently the roomba has a criteria that deletes quite a bit of open questions that are considered abandoned after a year: If the question is more than 365 days old, and ... has a score of ...
user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
151 views

Change to operation of Roomba when deleting duplicates

Earlier I noticed the question 12 v xbox connection on Electrical Engineering that is now a “Duplicate of…[deleted post]”. The question followed a pattern I've seen repeated many times: User posts a ...
PeterJ's user avatar
  • 6,246
1 vote
1 answer
107 views

Are duplicates auto-deleted? [duplicate]

Is there any condition that makes duplicates to be auto deleted at all? Or the duplicate status would protect of it: If the question was closed more than 9 days ago, and ... not closed as a ...
Braiam's user avatar
  • 15.3k
-11 votes
2 answers
687 views

Proposed Change to Community Deletion Criteria

Per this answer, the Community user autodeletes any answer that matches this criteria (among others): The system will automatically delete closed (not as a duplicate), unlocked questions with zero or ...
apnorton's user avatar
  • 787
14 votes
2 answers
284 views

Is the automatic question deletion routine broken?

I believe Roomba (aka automatic question deletion) is broken. While working on some delete vote therapy(TM), I ran across 5 questions that met the criteria for being automatically deleted but had not ...
user avatar
43 votes
4 answers
533 views

Are rejected migrations ever automatically deleted from the destination site? Should they be?

Now that rejected migrations are clearly identified, the list of them can be found with Google. Browsing them, I noticed that some questions persist in the rejected-closed-locked state for many months;...
How About a Nice Big Cup of's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
114 views

Why did my old question suddenly disappear after it got downvoted once?

A couple of days ago I suddenly got down voted on two of my old questions within seconds (which I thought was a little suspicious, since neither had had any activity for a long time, but it was just -...
t0mppa's user avatar
  • 133
23 votes
1 answer
161 views

Do not auto-delete questions that have been undeleted

This question was closed, without answers, and no activity for at least a week, thus it was automatically deleted. Then, it came up on our Meta, and I decided to undelete it, to give more people the ...
yannis's user avatar
  • 56.4k
10 votes
2 answers
454 views

Should we really have RemoveDeadQuestions on smaller sites?

Related: Please undelete this question on String Theory According to this post If the question is more than 30 days old, and ... has −1 or lower score has no answers is not locked ...
Manishearth's user avatar
  • 79.2k
3 votes
0 answers
92 views

Possible duplicate comment deletion is over-zealous [duplicate]

I've just had two comments on Subtract boolean from float in python deleted. One was the standard possible duplicate comment, which gets deleted when the post gets marked as a duplicate. The other ...
ben is uǝq backwards's user avatar