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Today, I received a message, in which I was informed that posts should not be deleted without any significant reason. If I had a good reason, I should send an e-mail.

Is it against the etiquette to delete posts without a significant reason ?

Shall I undelete my posts ?

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    $\begingroup$ By "posts", do you mean questions, answers, or comments? I don't think there is enough information in this question for anyone to write more than a vague answer. $\endgroup$
    – Carl Mummert
    Jan 24, 2014 at 13:42

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The answers to this question on Meta Stack Overflow are a partial reference, but essentially: yes, it is bad etiquette to delete questions and answers on a Stack Exchange site without a good reason. The idea is that once you contribute something to the site, it is no longer exclusively yours. Other people read it, think about it, answer it or comment on it, and if you then delete the post, you are robbing the community of the value generated by all that time other people have (or would have) put in. This is the reason that the system doesn't even allow you to delete posts under certain circumstances.

If you post something that you later consider to be worthy of deletion, it's a sign that you shouldn't have posted it in the first place. If this happens once or twice, it's not a big deal, but if you find yourself frequently deleting your questions or answers, you should think more carefully in the future about whether you actually want to post things.

(For completeness, I will note that on most other SE sites, comments are meant to be temporary and should be deleted once they've served their purpose, but I've been informed in the comments that this site is different.)

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    $\begingroup$ I strongly disagree with the idea that comments should typically be deleted. Many comments are not edit suggestions; they provide useful clarifications or additional information about a question or answer. I hope that moderators are not "cleaning them up". $\endgroup$
    – Carl Mummert
    Jan 26, 2014 at 12:36
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    $\begingroup$ I guess that might vary by site a bit. The intent of comments, coming from the SE team, is that they are transient and deletable after they have served their purpose, but if the moderators don't abide by that guideline on this site, one of them could clarify that here. (According to that original intent, the useful clarifications and additional information you mention should be edited into answers.) $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Jan 26, 2014 at 14:04
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    $\begingroup$ David, this community is probably the furthest possible from the SE directives about certain features (comments, wiki post, etc.) $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Jan 26, 2014 at 15:46

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