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  • Wow really? That seems strange. They don't get any indication that their post was deleted? No message in the inbox or banner or anything? Just "poof"? Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 15:51
  • @WesleyMurch Nope. SE makes a point of not providing notifications for negative actions, instead only notifying of "positive" actions. The question is just gone, and any links to it from <10k users get an error page. Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 15:51
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    How is the author expected to learn from the mistake? Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 15:52
  • @WesleyMurch Well, first off, most questions that don't belong on SO shouldn't be deleted, just closed, meaning they'll still be visible to the OP and can have comments discussing exactly that. In general if a question is deleted it should be very obvious what was wrong with it because it should be just that bad. If an author still wishes to discuss why it was deleted or how to improve he can ask here on meta, in which there will be lots of people who can see the deleted question to help critique it. Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 15:54
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    "most questions that don't belong on SO shouldn't be deleted"... I have doubts that is the popular viewpoint. So you suggest that this problem lies with overzealous community moderation? I don't see the value in letting crap questions hang around to clutter up the search results and sidebar. Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 15:56
  • @WesleyMurch Well, from my experiences, the community isn't over-zealously moderating, and that most closed questions aren't deleted. I think it's your viewpoint that most closed questions either should be, or do get deleted that is incorrect. Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 15:58
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    @WesleyMurch: Rapid deletion should be reserved for the most egregious of cases like spam, offensive posts, and trolling. Questions asked in good faith should stay on the site for two days so that the OP can see what happened. I see this abused a lot, although it does have the virtue of keeping the site cleaner. Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 15:58
  • "I don't see the value in letting crap questions hang around to clutter up the search results and sidebar." Not all questions that are closed are crap questions though. In fact, most aren't. Most are either good or at least okay questions that just don't belong on SE because of it's very high standards for questions. Either that, or they are salvageable; it's within the realm of possibility for the question to be edited into shape and there's a good/decent question buried in there somewhere. Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 16:00
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    @RobertHarvey: Why should a parse error or typo question hang around for 2 days. That means that the only way it could be deleted is if by chance 3 20K users happen to view it later. And "later" is usually months or years later even. Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 16:00
  • @WesleyMurch: A parse error or typo question? If the asker is especially lazy, treat it like a fringe post. But we're trying to be more helpful to newcomers, and many of those folks come from forum environments where they are allowed to post pretty much what they want to. Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 16:00
  • @RobertHarvey: A question solved by correcting a typo or parse error. A useless question (except to the OP). I'm talking about unsalvagable posts, where no amount of editing could possibly make it useful to a broad audience. Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 16:01
  • @WesleyMurch: Well, the only currently available way of communicating to them that they're doing it wrong is to leave a comment on their post and keep it on the site for a couple of days. Otherwise, you're just pushing them towards a site ban by insta-deleting their question. Most questions asked on Stack Overflow nowadays are "I have this bug, how can I fix it?" Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 16:04
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    The PHP tag requires a bit more enforcement than some of the others. :) Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 16:07
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    @RobertHarvey: Could this be solved by a "delayed delete vote" that kicks in after 2 days? The thing is, I'm only likely to view the question while it's active, so that's really my only chance to do cleanup duty. Your thoughts? Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 16:17
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    I would much rather just see something implemented so that a user can see his deleted question. @WesleyMurch That way it doesn't clutter the site with crap and the OP still can see what he/she did "wrong". I don't see a drawback to that approach. Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 16:18