121 votes

Can we please be more generous to elementary beginners?

While I am preparing (slowly, due to lots of urgent foreground tasks) a longer post about deletion on math.se, let me quickly suggest a simple guideline: Do not roll back improvements to a question ...
darij grinberg's user avatar
61 votes

Can we please be more generous to elementary beginners?

(Posting as an answer, rather than a comment, because I'm curious how many will disagree.) I think the "little to do with being elementary" dispute strikes at the heart of the underlying issue here. ...
Theo Bendit's user avatar
  • 49.5k
30 votes

Should we vote to delete wrong answers?

In my opinion, the author of incorrect answers should, when an error is pointed out, delete their answer unless (or until) it is amended. If the author feels that the error is of value to the site, it ...
user21820's user avatar
  • 56.6k
29 votes

Can we please STOP closing and deleting old posts with answers?

Thanks for saving me the time to post the exact same question. Let me just add my own examples to the list. My inclusion criterion is "contains a neat proof", which may be more liberal than yours, but ...
darij grinberg's user avatar
26 votes
Accepted

Is it okay to delete unanswered, marked as duplicates questions?

It depends. Ultimately it's your decision whether you want to delete your unanswered duplicate questions - within the constraints of the software: you can't delete more than five of your own posts per ...
Daniel Fischer's user avatar
23 votes
Accepted

Comment etiquette: Should one delete a comment about a minor error after correction has been made?

Delete your comment, flag any associated comments for deletion. A toy example: User 1: "I think there is a mistake on the third paragraph. Not every $X$ is a $Y$!" User 2: "Sorry, I don't ...
Aloizio Macedo's user avatar
  • 33.9k
22 votes

A question quickly closed and deleted

There is a very simple reason why we should not encourage posting about open problems by plain amateurs. If we allow just one, to be consistent we would need to allow a hundred. With the recent ...
user21820's user avatar
  • 56.6k
21 votes

Is it no longer considered OK to post a comment of more than 600 characters as an answer?

In the spirit of the question: This started life as more of an extended comment than an answer. I think it has morphed into an answer now though. Math.SE seems to be based around the idea that every ...
user1729's user avatar
  • 30.7k
20 votes

Should we vote to delete wrong answers?

Sometimes I have posted a wrong answer. (Hard to believe, I know.) But it seemed to me that the wrong method might be considered by others, so I left the wrong answer, and added a boldface This ...
GEdgar's user avatar
  • 108k
19 votes

Is undelete of comments already deleted.. possible?

Moderators can undeleted comments that were not deleted by the users. Namely, if you posted a comment and you deleted it, then moderators cannot undelete it. If, on the other hands, a moderator ...
Asaf Karagila's user avatar
  • 390k
19 votes

I don't understand the deletion of a recent question

From my experience on Math Help Boards as an admin, I'd say that such behavior is often indicative of cheating. They get help real quick, then delete the post so that their professor doesn't catch ...
Adrian Keister's user avatar
18 votes
Accepted

What to do with a question that is no longer relevant?

You should just delete it. There is no reason to clog up the site with questions that don't need to be answered. The localized nature of your mistake also makes it unlikely that the question will be ...
Alexander Gruber's user avatar
  • 26.7k
18 votes
Accepted

Answer not deleted after six "Recommend Deletion"

Because the post has a positive score. According to Shog9's answer on Is “recommend deletion” secretly a vote to delete? Yes, a sufficient number of delete recommendations (currently 6 on most sites, ...
Andrew T.'s user avatar
  • 136
17 votes

Should I remove a link if given an external request?

Well, since your question has multiple answers (and upvoted answers, and even an accepted answer) you cannot delete it yourself. Since it is closed 10K+ users can vote to delete it, although presently ...
user642796's user avatar
  • 51.8k
17 votes

Can we please be more generous to elementary beginners?

I have a great deal of sympathy with the general point being made here. I could say a lot - the challenge of maintaining quality whilst genuinely welcoming new contributors to the site is a tough one. ...
Mark Bennet's user avatar
  • 99.4k
17 votes

Why was this duplicate question deleted?

I've had calc students make the $e^{x^2}=e^{2x}$ mistake before, as non-associativity of exponentiation does not come up very often in lower level coursework. Beings that $\int e^{x^2}$ is often ...
Alexander Gruber's user avatar
  • 26.7k
16 votes
Accepted

I deleted my post. And now?

Moderators and users with sufficiently high reputation can see deleted posts. But the point of deleting a post is for the post to be deleted. Please don't delete a question just so you can repost it ...
Michael Greinecker's user avatar
16 votes

What are the merits, if there is any, of deleting (correctly) answered questions in the main site of MSE?

Deletion sends a rather clear message that the content is not welcome. To send this message is a merit of deletion. By contrast to put on hold/close yet not delete does not achieve much especially for ...
quid's user avatar
  • 41.9k
16 votes

Self-deleted answer undeleted by other users

If a question gets undeleted, the user who posted gets no notification about that undeletion. But you also get no notification if an answer of yours gets deleted. The only thing that happens (as you ...
José Carlos Santos's user avatar
15 votes

Is deletion of unnecessary comments a common practice here?

It is good practice to delete one's comments that are not relevant anymore. For comments by others that are not relevant anymore you can flag them as "obsolete," which will usually result in eventual ...
quid's user avatar
  • 41.9k
15 votes
Accepted

Why community in SE deleted my comment related to the below duplicate question?

I am sorry for the frustration, but it is of nobody's doing, specifically. The automatic comment posted upon a vote to close as a duplicate or also a flag as duplicate, the current case, gets ...
quid's user avatar
  • 41.9k
14 votes
Accepted

Deleting questions with upvotes, or with upvoted answers.

You say that: Sometimes poorly formulated questions contain enough information to both answer them, but more important to find them interesting enough for the community. [...] [P]eople vote to close ...
quid's user avatar
  • 41.9k
14 votes

Self-Answer, or Delete my Question?

I disagree that this is only a simple yes/no question. Well the ultimate answer is either yes or no, but you do need justifications. Think, for example, if some user posted another answer saying &...
Arctic Char's user avatar
  • 15.6k
13 votes
Accepted

How was this question deleted?

The answers were both deleted by their authors before the question was deleted. Answers that are deleted when the question author tries to delete the question don't hinder it.
Daniel Fischer's user avatar
13 votes

Can we please be more generous to elementary beginners?

I feel that the title of this thread is misguided. I see no evidence of this being about the elementary beginner. The asker of your example question has not been seen on the site since March 30th. ...
Jyrki Lahtonen's user avatar
13 votes

Can we please STOP closing and deleting old posts with answers?

As quid already remarked on the closure aspect of this meta question, let me address deletion (being aware that this might not make the answer popular): The further strong action of deletion mostly,...
Lord_Farin's user avatar
  • 17.7k

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible