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I've to retract this question!
I've undergone the same process already in 2019 when the question originated.
I've missed to find my own history of activity here, and can only beg for pardon (a severe illness last year still forces me to review my older activities).
Sorry for this absurd inconvenience.
_
I first thought to delete this question at all, but it has already answers and the system warned me against deleting question having answers, so I just put out this msg.

The question/answer I refer to is here: https://math.stackexchange.com/a/3125786/1714 It answered the related question as it has been asked in its first version; but some users (including myself) noticed, that the asker very likely might have something else in mind and finally someone even reformulated the question.

A short conversation in the comments around my answer showed moreover arising anger, and even a downvote - so I self-deleted my answer, however a bit frustrated because of the lot of effort I had invested... This all is of 2019, so nearly 4 years old.

Casually I browse the tag and reread (the historical) questions; but when I step into this question I always think that my detailed answer has much value --- but leave things as they are.
Today I think different, and feel a bit "empowered" (? :-) ) by one comment, so I undeleted that answer today.

But looking here in META for some opinion I see now, that a similar problem has been discussed here earlier in 2016 Should I delete my answer after OP changed his/her question in an essential way? The final advice (as I understand it) was to leave the (later) misaligned answer under discussion ... just deleted.
But I've now another idea: is it perhaps a better idea to "ask the question with its original direction and then self-answer my question"? Such a procedure has been proposed in MSE for certain situations, so maybe this would be the most appropriate thing here now.

What do you think?

I'll leave that answer of mine for the time being as "undeleted" so also discussants with low reputation can see the problem and state their opinions here. I think I'll re-delete it after discussion here in any case.

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    $\begingroup$ Changing the question in a way that neuters or renders irrelevant any existing answers is not acceptable. If the question needs those changes to be viable, it should have just been closed, and if it needs those edits, it should be deleted and re-asked. $\endgroup$
    – Nij
    Jul 2 at 11:38
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    $\begingroup$ @Nij - yes, that might be a correct way. But this case happened 3 years ago and handling of my "problem" should not lead to destruction after that. My thoughts here meanwhile converge to this idea: "should I create a new question to which I assign then my answer as self-answer? (and delete my answer in the old question)" $\endgroup$
    – Gottfried Helms
    Jul 2 at 11:44
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    $\begingroup$ I think your suggestion of asking a new question is a good one. Math SE is supposed to be an archive of high-quality questions and answers. If you have a high-quality answer that no longer fits where it was posted, writing a high-quality question to attach it to can only make the site better. Your question might attract other good-quality answers, and someone searching for the question in the future might find your post. $\endgroup$
    – MJD
    Jul 3 at 20:46
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks @MJD - I'm going to do that. $\endgroup$
    – Gottfried Helms
    Jul 3 at 20:54
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    $\begingroup$ I'm deleting this question because after some research I found that I myself had already solved the problem in 2019. I only can "sorry" to the contributors here! (I've to rework many things after a severe illness last year and obviously missed the history of this question) $\endgroup$
    – Gottfried Helms
    Jul 5 at 9:57
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks for being honest and explaining your "oops" with an update! $\endgroup$
    – JonathanZ
    Jul 5 at 15:00

2 Answers 2

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$\begingroup$

I think your suggestion of asking a new question is a good one. Math SE is supposed to be an archive of high-quality questions and answers. If you have a high-quality answer that no longer fits where it was posted, writing a high-quality question to attach it to can only make the site better.

Also:

  • Your question might attract other good-quality answers
  • Someone searching for the question in the future might find your post
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Please find a way to repost/undelete your answer Gottfried Helms. I will upvote.

In general, it is on the person asking to be clear. If someone changes their question meaningfully after it was already answered [making the answers already there invalid], then the question itself automatically gets a downvote from me, and I leave a comment to the person telling them the person asking that it is on them to be clear the first time, and as they were not it is a -1 from me. And the original answer--if good--gets an upvote from me as well!

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, Mike. The current state (since 2019) is my already then generated question math.stackexchange.com/q/3138566/1714 (seems to have been difficult to understand for some readers) and my (even slightly improved) original answer, which I'd deleted in the "Question" in question ;-). The answer: see math.stackexchange.com/a/3138585/1714 $\endgroup$
    – Gottfried Helms
    Jul 6 at 17:55
  • $\begingroup$ @GottfriedHelms done!' $\endgroup$
    – Mike
    Jul 6 at 17:56

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