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Why is not possible to delete a question where another user has posted an answer ?

What if the original poster realized afterwards that it as in fact a bad question to ask; and perhaps should have invested more effort & research into it themselves in the first instance ?

Would it not help this site if users could remove their own questions that they think have a negative affect ?

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  • “What if the original poster realized afterwards that it as in fact a bad question to ask; and perhaps should have invested more effort & research into it themselves in the first instance?” - Because this would harm the community. If it’s a bad question you should improve it so it no longer is a bad question.
    – Ramhound
    Oct 10, 2017 at 1:01

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You can delete your own questions, assuming certain criteria are met.

From our help page Why are questions deleted:

Users can delete their own questions if the question:

  • has zero answers
  • only one answer, but that answer has no upvotes

Simply click the delete link underneath the question.

Deleting a question when it has upvoted answers is unfair to the person who took time to answer the question with a good quality (upvoted) answer. There are many good answers to what are, at a glance, "bad" questions.

Many questions are not actually bad, but are instead misguided. A good answer can help more than the original questioner, it can help a thousand more people who might have the same understanding. Would you deprive a thousand more people from having the benefit of the answer you go simply because you feel a bit daft in hindsight?

There are no stupid questions, only people too proud to ask them.


As an aside, there was some abuse of the question/answer format of the site in the past in the form or people deleting their questions. Someone would ask a "dumb" question, get a good answer and then immediately delete their question before the downsides came in.

It's not much fun investing your time answering a question when OP is just out for themselves.

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  • Hi thanks for your input, but my original question does ask about questions where there is already an answer, btw I enjoy the quote about the stupid question, see my profile text ;)
    – PeterH
    Oct 9, 2017 at 17:15
  • I answered about what if the question has an answer. The moment you have more than one answer or one answer that is upvoted then you cannot delete it.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Oct 9, 2017 at 19:14
  • So you did! my bad was reading it on my phone
    – PeterH
    Oct 9, 2017 at 19:16

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