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Sometimes, I ask a question, and a few minutes later realize my question is ambiguous and/or unclear and/or would benefit from a major rewrite. At this point, I kind of "panic" and frantically try rewrite the question, often introducing mistakes in the process.

To prevent this sort of thing, it would be useful if questions were "pause-able", making them no longer appear on the main list, and preventing new answers, so that the asker can do these kinds of major rewrites.

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    $\begingroup$ You could delete, edit, and then undelete... $\endgroup$ – J. M. is a poor mathematician Apr 5 '13 at 13:13
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    $\begingroup$ @J.M. You can't see your own deleted questions unless you have 10k+ reputation $\endgroup$ – Mad Scientist Apr 5 '13 at 13:13
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    $\begingroup$ @MadScientist: You can undelete the question if you are still on the page of the question. And since the edit doesn't change the page, you should be able to also edit it. $\endgroup$ – Asaf Karagila♦ Apr 5 '13 at 13:23
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    $\begingroup$ ... as long as you don't close the Window/Tab that contains the deleted post. $\endgroup$ – Willie Wong Apr 5 '13 at 15:30
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    $\begingroup$ @Willie: That goes without saying, but now that you have said it... I suppose it goes with saying too. $\endgroup$ – Asaf Karagila♦ Apr 5 '13 at 15:35
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Actually, for a major re-write, I would suggest just delete the question immediately. And repost a new question once you figured out the right way to formulate it. If you need to go away for a while and come back, feel free to make use of our Drafting Sandbox as a temporary dumping ground for your work in progress as you hammer out the details.

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    $\begingroup$ The problem with deletion is that often users are in the process of composing answers, and then they may lose all their work when they try to post the answer, only to find that the question has been deleted (without any clue that it may be reposted). This can be very frustrating to an answerer (esp. if much time has been spent on a long answer). Perhaps better would be to post an edit to the question mentioning that it will be revised shortly. $\endgroup$ – Math Gems Apr 5 '13 at 17:17
  • $\begingroup$ @MathGems: are you proposing that questions never be deleted? There's nothing in your comment that addresses the OP's question. Furthermore, if the OP makes a major edit, it is quite likely the long winded answer you or any other user composed to the original version would be completely nonsensical relative to the new version any way. So how is your proposal supposed to help? $\endgroup$ – Willie Wong Apr 8 '13 at 8:50
  • $\begingroup$ I see no proposal "that questions never be deleted." The comment is on your answer, not on the OP's question. It addresses your proposal to "just delete the question immediately". That action almost always frustrates active answerers. I've lost count of the number of times that has happened to me. If the OP is going to make major changes to the question, and is no longer interested in answers to the original version, then I suggest this: edit the question to say that, then post the new question (continued below) $\endgroup$ – Math Gems Apr 8 '13 at 14:15
  • $\begingroup$ (continued from above) After an hour, if no answers appear on the original question, then it is probably safe to delete the original question. I don't recall if edits to the question notify answerers. If not, then it might make sense for the OP to post an answer saying that the question has been changed to a new question, and will be deleted shortly if no answers appear. It is important that answerers be notified asap so that they do not waste any further time. $\endgroup$ – Math Gems Apr 8 '13 at 14:16

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