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I had a question and apparently it was a duplicate. So I decided to delete it but could not delete it since it had an answer. So I accepted it as duplicate. So now why do I lose rep for something I have fixed already?

In other words, what is the point of restoring rep for deleted questions but not doing it for accepted duplicates?

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  • 1
    Because you are expected to search SU before asking your question, to be sure it is not a duplicate.
    – Moab
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 17:24
  • I already did but apparently I missed it. Furthermore, it was not on recommended questions as well. Anyways can you show me the point of restoring rep for deleted questions but leaving it as it is for accepted duplicate ones?
    – Utku
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 17:26
  • @Moab "Because you are expected to search SU before asking your question, to be sure it is not a duplicate." A similar argument might be made for deleted questions as well, had the reputation was not restored for them. This time, you (or anyone) might have said: "Because you are expected to read and understand the community guidelines for posting questions before asking your question, to make sure that your question is within the frames of question guidelines."
    – Utku
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 17:38
  • While reputation is returned to you, the score of that deleted question, is still used to calculate if you can or cannot ask a question. So a deleted negative scored question is still counted against you. Deleted question are also counted against you differently, so their weight against ability to ask question, is more then a duplicate question that will stop getting attention in 5-6 days unless you draw attention to it.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 19:03
  • Great. Another downvote. Would the downvoter deem me worthy of sharing his wisdom with me?
    – Utku
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 19:12
  • I don't agree that being able to vote on closed questions is an issue. Votes on meta.superuser.com simply mean we agree or don't agree with you.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 19:18
  • @Ramhound Then can you explain the disperancy of policies on deleted and closed questions maybe with an anwer? If a user deletes his (downvoted) question, he is free of rep lose. That is, he acknowledged his fault and hence, took an action to make it right and hence, his rep lose has been revoked. In a proposed to be closed question, if the asker is accepted to close the question, he again acknowledged his fault (or lack of research). Then, it seems to me that his rep lose again should be revoked since again he has acknowledged his mistake and took an action to make it right.
    – Utku
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 19:24
  • @Ramhound You said that actually the deleted questions have a bigger (albeit not visible initially) effect on the user. So this balances the ability to downvote on a closed question but still, the actions look like the same to me.
    – Utku
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 19:27
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    I just explain it. Reputation isn't returned, ALL votes are reversed, when a question is deleted. This means votes on answers to the question and votes on the question itself. Once an answer has been upvoted and accepted, it would unfair to those that answer questions ( the entire purpose of a Stackexchange website is to attract people to answer questions ), if the author once they got their answer could simply delete it no matter what. Questions are a dime a dozen, a good answer to those question, not so much.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 19:28
  • @Utku - Most people don't understand that deleted questions still count against their ability to post new questions, and no matter what education we provided, those same people still wouldn't know.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 19:31

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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You don't lose reputation for posting a question that ended up being closed as a duplicate. That doesn't happen.

What happens is other users may have seen your question and decided that yes, a downvote is justified in this case because:

  • you did no research, or did not do enough cursory/initial searching
  • the question makes nothing close to sense if you remove all the images
  • that it was a duplicate
  • because reasons

But the system will not automatically downvote your question if it was a duplicate.

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  • 1
    "But the system will not automatically downvote your question if it was a duplicate." Yes, I am aware of this. What I ask is, although the reasons for deleting or closing a question are not very different (at least I think so. Please enlighten me if they are.), why is a person free of previous downvote penalties in a deleted question, vs. this is not the case in a closed question?
    – Utku
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 18:45
  • Then your question is why can you still get votes on closed questions
    – random Mod
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 18:52
  • Yes, I think it may answer my question. Let me check the meta.
    – Utku
    Commented Sep 28, 2015 at 18:58
  • I checked here and here and what is being said is questions are closed for: 1) Either to be edited to be made into a useful question and opened later. 2) Or to be eventually deleted. ...
    – Utku
    Commented Sep 29, 2015 at 7:40
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    ... For duplicate questions, number 1 is out of the situation. The question has been flagged as duplicate. The asker has been shown a message whether his question is a duplicate of some other question and the asker has accepted that his question is indeed a duplicate. From this point onwards, the only way to make such question a non-duplicate is to edit it so that it will completely be another question. ...
    – Utku
    Commented Sep 29, 2015 at 7:44
  • ... But this is effectively asking another question. Then either editing a question into a totally different question must be acceptable, or if a question is eventually going to be deleted, why not it is deleted now?
    – Utku
    Commented Sep 29, 2015 at 8:01
  • It may or may not be deleted, so there is a grace period, but duplicates are not deleted to allow them to point to the canonical
    – random Mod
    Commented Sep 29, 2015 at 12:44
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    "But duplicates are not deleted to allow them to point to the canonical" That makes sense to me as well. Because it serves a purpose. Since it serves a purpose, I think the asker should not suffer a penalty on questions marked as duplicate. Anyways I just wanted to point out what would be a reasonable policy in my opinion. I guess the actual answer is, "This is how it is decided to be done". Thanks for answers.
    – Utku
    Commented Sep 29, 2015 at 13:01

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