# I can't find my on-topic post with positive vote and answer. Possibly has been deleted?

I have asked around year ago a question something like

"Prove that any compact, connected, simply connected, semisimple Lie group is $$SU(2)$$"

and want to read its answer but now I can't find it. I know that it has been commented/answered by @QiaochuYuan and/or @jasonDevito. I have tried this query without success. Now I guess it has been deleted but not by me. Is that possible?

• It is definitely possible that a posted is closed and then deleted by others users. Dec 9, 2021 at 18:49
• Have you seen the post recently? Dec 9, 2021 at 18:59
• No. i think. Is that important? Dec 9, 2021 at 19:01
• If it is recently deleted, it is shown in your profile (under "recently deleted questions") You may take a look there. Dec 9, 2021 at 19:02
• No it is not there. it shows only posts that has been deleted by me I think. Dec 9, 2021 at 19:03
• No, it shows all your recently deleted posts, whether or not it is deleted by you or not. If you can't find it there, then it's hard to find. A moderator can search your deleted posts though. Dec 9, 2021 at 19:05
• I suspect that you are referring to this question, which was asked on 24 November 2020, closed (for lack of context) on 29 November 2020, and deleted by a vote of three users on 6 December 2020. Contrary to the assertion in your title, this question was not considered on-topic (again, it lacked context), and was closed and deleted.
– Xander Henderson Mod
Dec 9, 2021 at 19:39
• @XanderHenderson: Tnx, yes thats it. It wasn't flagged when I accepted the answer. now how can I back it? Dec 9, 2021 at 19:46
• @XanderHenderson: Some questions are just questions and I don't know how can be added more details to prevent from deletion. IMO this feature/restriction of MSE is because of homework/exams for cheaters or others. But I just ask for curiosity. Dec 9, 2021 at 19:54
• @C.F.G I guess it is hard to know if your question is a homework or not. I can imagine the question "Show that any compact connected rank one Lie group is either $SO(3)$ or $SU(2)$" is one of the homework Q in a Lie group class (I am pretty sure this is a lemma in some Lie group text when I first learnt it). Dec 9, 2021 at 20:41
• @ArcticChar: I agree. But there should be some badges or feature that prove/shows that a user is not a student or s/he is a self learner or something like that. (Do you know the name of that book? probably Hall? ) Dec 9, 2021 at 20:46
• @C.F.G There are existing standards on this site regarding context. The standards are there not to distinguish "good faith" questions from "do my homework for me questions", but to ensure that we don't have to distinguish between such questions. This is a compromise which, as such, makes no one happy. I would be more than happy to discuss a different policy (e.g. a policy where we explicitly forbid homework questions, and give greater leeway for higher-level questions without context), but that would require dedicated meta discussion and a new community consensus.
– Xander Henderson Mod
Dec 9, 2021 at 21:22
• Barring such a discussion and change-of-policy, I think that it is better to attempt to enforce existing policy in a uniform manner.
– Xander Henderson Mod
Dec 9, 2021 at 21:23
• Asking "just for curiousity" is allowed, perhaps even encouraged, but this is then the context of your Question. Something about the problem made you curious, and sharing that interest (although well known to yourself) is often able to kindle the curiousity of future Readers. It is the kind of content we want to collect. Dec 9, 2021 at 21:41
• @C.F.G. As I see it, the difference is because one is seeking a proof of a "classical fact", so is a genuine reference request, while the closed one doesn't seem to know the answer (so is a standard question rather than a reference request). [There is always room for improvement though - in the "reference request", it would have been nice if you had said where you had seen this result ("my prof. says this is classical" or "I found this stated, but without proof, in the book X from 1924" or "I read this in the paper Y, but they didn't give a reference").] Dec 10, 2021 at 10:37