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Yesterday I was surprised to find that this question was deleted by the time I had finished writing an answer to it, so that the answer could not be posted. Apparently it was OP himself who deleted the question.

Now such things happen, but in this case I could not see what really happened or why. The question is OK by most standards, there were two answers (unaccepted and without votes), both deleted, in case of the first question this was "by owner" (I presume the other answer was deleted because the question was).

I could make guesses about what happened; for instance the question looks like an assignment, and maybe OP was afraid that whoever gave the assignment would find out. Maybe, but it is pure speculation. The point that the question being deleted, there is no way to even ask for clarification, since comments are disabled. (Of course one cannot be sure OP would care to reply to a deleted question either, but at least one could try.) I voted for undeleting the question, but this has little effect. Is there any means provided to help figure out what went on in such cases?

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  • $\begingroup$ Voted to undelete the question. One more and you can apply @JChau's strategy... $\endgroup$
    – Did
    Commented Mar 20, 2014 at 7:11
  • $\begingroup$ Too bad I do not have sufficient rep... :-( $\endgroup$
    – Anonymous Computer
    Commented Mar 20, 2014 at 7:13
  • $\begingroup$ The question has been undeleted. $\endgroup$
    – user61527
    Commented Mar 20, 2014 at 7:42
  • $\begingroup$ @T.Bongers: Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – Marc van Leeuwen
    Commented Mar 20, 2014 at 8:11
  • $\begingroup$ I got rather confused reading this question. It seems that each place it says "closed" you really mean "deleted". $\endgroup$
    – Tobias Kildetoft
    Commented Mar 20, 2014 at 8:18
  • $\begingroup$ @TobiasKildetoft: You are right, I meant deleted; didn't even realise they were different things when I was writing (though I course I should have). Corrected now. $\endgroup$
    – Marc van Leeuwen
    Commented Mar 20, 2014 at 8:28

1 Answer 1

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This issue pops up pretty often with cheaters on homework assignments. They ask a question, and someone answers it. BEFORE the answer is voted up, the OP deletes the question, TAKING THE ANSWER ALONG WITH IT. The OP was likely cheating, as you mentioned.

One way to counter this kind of action is to upvote the first answer you see (usually I do this to stop cheaters). When an answer is upvoted, the question cannot be deleted by the OP.

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