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Someone who asked a question on Stack Overflow a few months ago (and has gotten five downvotes for it at the time of this writing) is now asking me to delete my answer because he wants to remove his question. My questions here are:

  1. Why is he asking this? Can't he delete his question without me removing my answer?
  2. Is it correct/ethical/inline with Stack Overflow standards to fulfill such a request? I have spent time writing a good answer to a bad question and have got upvotes for it. What do you folks suggest?
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  • 7
    OPs aren't allowed to delete their question if the post has an answer.
    – Sam
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 12:43
  • 8
    I would suggest you no-sell that request -- it is abusive. @Sam, IIRC it has to be an upvoted answer (tally > 0).
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 12:43
  • @FrédéricHamidi Right, I did think there was a clause somewhere.
    – Sam
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 12:47
  • 36
    Ignore the request, you invested time answering.
    – Infinite Recursion
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 12:49
  • 31
    Some people ask homework questions, get their answers, and then want to erase their tracks...
    – Joe
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 15:20
  • 16
    If the answers are good don't delete them. If the OP vandalises flag and we'll take action. I'm strongly against this selfish revisionist attitude of some users.
    – Flexo Mod
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 16:43
  • 2
    There's this and this that deal with similar situations, if you're interested.
    – awksp
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 19:20
  • 1
    If the answers are good but the question is bad, try editing the question. If the question can't be saved but the answer could apply to a good question, you could ask your own question to have a place to put the answer.
    – Jeffrey Bosboom
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 19:29
  • 1
    You could tell the OP that deleting his/her question will not remove the downvotes from their invisible reputation. They'll get the rep points back, but if they have too many downvotes (whether on live or deleted questions) they can still be banned. He/she would be better improving the question, even if it is an old one.
    – halfer
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 22:07
  • @joe though based off the description here sounds like the questioner may just want to remove the heavily downvoted blot on their question history.
    – Martin Smith
    Commented Jul 6, 2014 at 23:14
  • 2
    Only 183 Reversal badges have been awarded according to the site. If your answer makes it to +20 that's a pretty rare badge earned. It might be proper to consider the weighty issues here and scorn badges, but... they're there.
    – user189804
    Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 0:28
  • 5
    I think the OP is actually trying to rage-quit, rather than get around the question ban. See the OP's recent comment history.
    – Qantas 94 Heavy
    Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 1:39
  • Same thing happened here: What should I do when OP ask me to delete my answer?
    – user000001
    Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 9:31
  • I had this as well. OP asked a question, I answered it and it even got upvoted. Then OP thought his question (despite the answer) wasn't clear enough, so he rewrote it and posted it as a different question. Although it's good that OP wanted his question to be of good quality, it really bugged me that he did it this way. Not necessarily because of the points, but because of the work I put into the answer. I also am very annoyed when I write an answer, and the question turns out to be deleted before I can answer it.
    – GolezTrol
    Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 9:46
  • B.t.w. eventually I removed my answer because, well, the question was a duplicate now and the new version had attracted right answers in the mean time as well, so I made this exception in favor of the 'better' version of the question. But I was very reluctant in doing so, and in another situation I might just have kept it.
    – GolezTrol
    Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 9:49

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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  1. Taken from the faq page about deletion:

    When can't I delete my own post?

    You can't delete answers that have been accepted. You can't delete any question that:

    • has an upvoted answer, or
    • has multiple answers (even if there are no upvotes)

  2. Actually strictly speaking, it's not your call to make. By posting your answer, you contributed something positive, helpful to other people around the world (upvotes are the indicator). So removing it will remove something useful, hence against the "spirit" of Stack Overflow.

That said, if you really believe the question itself got no real value you can delete your answer and let the OP delete his question. The rules are not black and white, and got more than 50 shades of gray.

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