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I have a question about my Super User post: Extend video without re-encoding/encoding/re-compressing/transcoding

I was told on my previous post to Is it better to ask FFMPEG questions in this section or on Stack Exchange video? that rather than reposting it's better to delete and remake questions that get ignored, but when I try to, AFTER deleting, it seems like it's not really deleted because I get this message on posting '

This post appears to be a duplicate of Extend video without re-encoding/encoding/re-compressing/transcoding

' [I have undeleted it now so people can see it for this post]

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  • It is not better to delete and remake questions, you should edit your question to add additional details such as what you have tried so far and what progress you have made in the mean time. What they mean (I hope) is that if you are wanting to post on another site is that you delete it on the original site and then re-post it on the other site. You should not be simply deleting your post on this site and then reposting the exact same question as that will quickly lead to you getting an automated question ban.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 12:20
  • @Mokubai To clarify: by "another site" you mean "another site within Stack Exchenge", right?
    – Kamil Maciorowski
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 12:37
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    @KamilMaciorowski there are no sites outside Stack Exchange, there is only the lawless wilderness.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 12:41
  • More seriously though, even when reposting to other sites on the internet general etiquette would say that you should tailor your new post to fit that site rather than lazily copy-pasting. If they Google your question and it brings them back here then you get the same annoyed questions of "where should I actually post an answer" and "who gets the rep/karma/salary if the answer gets copied to the other place by someone else"...
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 12:43
  • @Mokubai My point was rather not to send a message that we forbid seeking help elsewhere in parallel.
    – Kamil Maciorowski
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 12:58
  • If it's over 2 weeks, a month, a year even, still not repost? this seems a bit like a flaw in the policy if what might be a perfectly reasonable question that people are interested in (the votes by others seem to support that anyway) can sink to the bottom and get lost and never noticed? If I knew the answer I wouldn't post it at all, there is no "progress" for most people I imagine it's silly to force people to change the wording of the post to say the same thing
    – internet is for kittens
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 15:42
  • @internetisforkittens Deleting the question would loose you the reputation, favourites and any links that search engines may have for people looking to solve similar problems so deleting it and re-submitting it is actually a net loss to you for simply "bumping" the question back to the top. What you should actually be doing is using the "edit" or "improve this question" button under your question and telling us anything else you can about the problem. If there is nothing more to add then what value exactly is there in just "getting another go at the top"? Other people have questions too.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 17:34
  • Because on a site like this where it's organised by most recent first, not getting answered isn't necessarily a reflection on a question's value but pure chance whether someone who knows an answer might see it at that point in time while it's visible...It seems like Stackexchange itself does nothing to raise visibility of unanswered questions, as others mentioned I should try other websites instead, since this heavy handed policy has made me, as a new user, already feel unwelcome and that the site's priority is on volume for spamming search engine results, not quality.
    – internet is for kittens
    Commented Jan 15, 2019 at 2:14

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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In order to provide a fast and responsive site Stack Exchange employs a lot of caching and speed enhancements that may mean that after deleting something it may be a vague amount of time later that the data is purged from various different queries and their respective caches.

This means that you might be able to see your question in searches for a short while after you delete it, and this would include the "related questions" queries.

That said you should not be deleting and reposting questions if they do not get attention. That is (I hope) not what was implied in the linked meta question. What they mean is that if you are wanting to post on another Stack Exchange site is that you delete it on the original site and then re-post it on the other site.

What you should be doing is editing your existing question to add additional details such as what you have tried so far and what progress you have made in the mean time.

You should not be simply deleting your post on this site and then reposting the exact same question as that will quickly lead to you getting an automated question ban, or even a ban from a moderator for question repetition.

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  • It seemed less like a cache thing than a deliberate time delay as the page was live and marked deleted with an undelete button, maybe there's a specific time?
    – internet is for kittens
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 15:46
  • if it had an "undelete" button then it was deleted. It would then have taken some vague amount of time (maybe seconds, maybe minutes) for it to evacuate the various caches. Not everything happens instantaneously and it depends on what level of impact it would have on the user impact. Would it be visible on the front page but lead to a dead link? That cache should be purged or rebuilt very fast. Is someone likely to delete their question and attempt to repost that exact question? We hope not so the cache related to suggested questions is less of a "big" priority.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 17:13
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    Also, just because you can see it doesn't mean it isn't deleted for everyone else. Deleting your question doesn't actually remove it from the database at all, it just marks it as "deleted" so that only the only people who can see it are the original poster, moderators and other high rep users.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Jan 14, 2019 at 17:15
  • Oh, the Facebook "no image you delete is ever actually deleted" approach, that's pretty horrible if people accidentally include stuff they want to remove and there's no way to delete the edit history, that sounds like a big warning for people about using this site.
    – internet is for kittens
    Commented Jan 15, 2019 at 2:19
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    If you include personally identifiable or otherwise sensitive information then you can request it be redacted and removed from the edit history by flagging for moderator attention.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Jan 15, 2019 at 11:12

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