I had one question posted today that was conveniently deleted right away. I have the impression that this was done just to hide the rudeness and unprofessional behavior of one of the respondents in the discussion, with expressions like circus act, silly question, and so on.

I would like the question to be restored, as a testimony of what I'm saying.

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Do you happen to remember the title, ID or URL of the question, so that 10k users can check it out for themselves? –  Pops Nov 18 '11 at 19:34
@PopularDemand Found it: I suspect the accepted answer to a prior discussion on SO was incorrect. Just to verify if my understanding is correct I submit this post. (I did a Google site search for his name, limited to content from today.) –  Jeremy Banks Nov 18 '11 at 19:35
The community has voted to close it. It seems to have been subsequently deleted because the problem it is asking about has a perfectly good answer to on another question (which you have even linked to in the question itself). As such, it isn't that valuable to the community, which is probably why it was deleted. –  Oded Nov 18 '11 at 19:45
"that was conveniently deleted right away", err, no: it was closed after 1 hour, and deleted after 2 more hours. And if words like "circus act" and "silly question" offend you that much, perhaps it's time to either grow a thicker skin, or cancel your ADLS connection. :) –  Bart Kiers Nov 18 '11 at 19:58
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2 Answers

I can't read the minds of the folks who deleted your question (10k only), but after reviewing said question, it looks like your "question" wasn't one, and should have properly been a comment or edit to your original post. Stack Overflow isn't a traditional message board or forum. Questions must stand alone, and yours can't. There's no useful content in that post that wasn't already in the referenced question, and so it was rightfully deleted.

The comments on the deleted question (which don't seem to be rude or unprofessional at all) explain this clearly, and it looks like you read those comments.

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Thanks for your answer. But I won't be surprised if this question also gets deleted 2 hours from now. –  Ayrosa Nov 18 '11 at 20:07
@Ayrosa This question is very localized to your specific situation. It can't help anyone else, and since you've already been told why what happened happened, the question has no further use. Deletion makes perfect sense. –  Matthew Read Nov 18 '11 at 20:15
@MatthewRead I don't know. Perhaps the question can be saved if it were made more general. perhaps something like... "Is it acceptable to ask a question based on another looking to clarify a point discussed in the comments?" –  Some Helpful Commenter Nov 18 '11 at 21:49
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I was the moderator who deleted that question and I did it for a few reasons:

  1. It's a duplicate of a question that has an accepted answer with a decent number of upvotes. If you disagree with the answer then earn some rep (125) to get the downvote privilege.

  2. If you thought the answer was wrong then why didn't you add your own and explaining why yours is correct.

  3. I didn't see you disagree or challenge the accepted answer in the comments, that would be the correct place to do this.

  4. The aim of your question was to open up a stream of discussion. Stack Overflow is not a discussion site.

  5. The comments in the accepted answer were starting to get a wee bit heated, nothing terrible but clearly there is some disagreement, your question would've just escalated things.

  6. Your new question attracted quite a few negative comments, if I'd left it open things would have gotten out of hand and we'd never be done mopping up flags. If I'd just closed then I'd need to lock the question to stem any further comments. The result would be a question that can neither be answered or commented on thus rendering it non-viable.

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The main problem is the accepted answer was wrong. Anybody with a reasonable knowledge of C++ knows that. At the moment I posted my question, I wasn't so sure about this, so my aim was just to understand the problem correctly. I never had the intention to demerit whomever answered the original question, nonetheless I had to sustain his unsuitable and intempestive behavior. By the way, it was his behavior that convinced me that I'm right and he's wrong. Thanks anyway. –  Ayrosa Nov 19 '11 at 17:52
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