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I asked a question which, after continuing to experiment, I found the answer myself. I posted the answer, but I think that the question and answer really don't contribute to the site and, after reading the deletion FAQ, I decided I'd like to delete it.

Unfortunately, when I attempt to delete it I get the following message:

You cannot delete this question as others have invested time and effort into answering it. For more information, visit the help center.

I'd like to point out that I am the only one who posted at all on the question. As a result, I'd like to know

  1. If there is a different way to delete it?
  2. If we could add a feature where if you are the only one who answered your question you can delete it without getting the message, especially if it has a relatively low number of views and has been buried for a while.
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  • 2
    Did you try unaccepting your own answer, deleting your answer, then deleting your question?
    – antimo
    May 9, 2019 at 9:35
  • @antimo No. I was worried that if I did that I'd get a question ban for deleting too many things. I just googled 'how to give a player a written book' and my question came up, so would it be appropriate to turn it into an actual how to instead of a 'someone please explain what's wrong' post? That was why I was going to delete it in the first place, but it seems it could become useful with some edits, especially because the wiki is a bit difficult to understand if you're new to nbt, like I was.
    – Nik3141
    May 9, 2019 at 14:33
  • I seriously doubt you'd get a question ban for deleting one question and one answer.
    – Pika Supports Ukraine
    May 9, 2019 at 21:16

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I do understand your point of friction here! I've run into it from time to time myself. While this can be quite frustrating, there is a way around it, which antimo helpfully provided in the comments - unaccept (if accepted) and delete your answer and then delete the question.

We do have flags for moderators when lots of content is deleted in a short period of time but there aren't any automatic bans for this. If the moderators can see why you were removing the content, then there shouldn't be any issues. Feel free to leave a comment on the post explaining your choice to delete but deleting these two posts shouldn't raise any flags.

That said, there's no need to delete it! Sometimes these seemingly silly questions are the ones that help a good number of people. That's how our network thrives - any user asking a question is generally interested in helping themselves but they may represent many users with similar problems so getting an answer helps everyone unwilling to ask.

If you can see a way to make the question and answer more useful to more people, please do! Our system encourages self-answered questions. Do keep in mind, however, that if others have answered your question (not the case here) don't significantly change the question in a way that invalidates the other answer/s you've received.

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  • in terms of the feature request of deleting self-answered questions, would it be right to assume this is [status-bydesign] or [status-declined]?
    – Robotnik Mod
    Jun 28, 2019 at 4:59
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    I think it's more... the current implementation seems like it forces people to needlessly jump through hoops but does it happen often enough that it's worth fixing... essentially, how many self-answered questions (with an upvote or accept) with only one answer exist that the OP has tried to delete? It's probably pretty rare... and (if the OP deletes their answer (after unaccepting it, if necessary), they can delete their answer they can delete the question... so they can unblock themselves... this whole mess could use some eyes, I'm just not sure it'd be a priority. :)
    – Catija
    Jun 28, 2019 at 5:11
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    But let me see... maybe it's easy to fix and more common than I'm aware. :D
    – Catija
    Jun 28, 2019 at 5:12
  • [status-obscure-enough-that-we-wont-touch-it] then :). Thanks for getting back! Don't make it a priority on my part - I've just been answering/status-tagging [bug]s and [feature-request]s that have been addressed over the years (especially since the design refresh & top bar changes) so I thought I'd check. No rush :)
    – Robotnik Mod
    Jun 28, 2019 at 5:15
  • Cool! If there's anything important you think could use a look, let me know. Glad to hear about someone doing curation on meta!
    – Catija
    Jun 28, 2019 at 5:46
  • No problem! I've pinged a more recent one to you in the gaming mod chat :)
    – Robotnik Mod
    Jun 28, 2019 at 7:01

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