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I do not mean to stir up any commotion here, but today I looked at the list of my answers and realised that one had disappeared on its own. Curious I went to check it out and discovered that the entire question had been removed. May I ask for a brief answer as to why the question was removed?

I can speculate on a few possibilities (which I shall not mention) but would rather have my doubts clarified. I think the asker (Rene Nyffenegger) and other answerers (kiamlaluno, mplungjan, theidiotbox) might be surprised too at the removal.

Considering there is nothing seriously wrong with the question or the answers, its unjustified removal is too drastic for me to handle.

Update: The question has been restored and my answer has been edited for clarity.

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    I don't think that question was particularly lousy.
    – Marthaª
    Jul 11, 2011 at 13:45
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    The problem is that 10k users cannot even vote to undelete the question.
    – apaderno
    Jul 11, 2011 at 13:52
  • Without knowing anything about this particular instance, it looks like one can delete ones own questions. So possibly the questino author deleted it.
    – Mitch
    Jul 11, 2011 at 17:27
  • @Mitch It was not the OP who deleted the question; who deleted the question was a diamond user.
    – apaderno
    Jul 11, 2011 at 18:25
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    @Jasper: hmm? I said I thought the question was OK, without any emphasis on "question", i.e. I said nothing about my opinion of the answers. (For the record... uh, I don't remember what I thought of the answers. Looking... Ok, yours happens to be incorrect, and the others kind of repeat each other, but, like the question itself, there's nothing egregiously wrong with any of it.)
    – Marthaª
    Jul 12, 2011 at 23:16

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Revisiting this, I think I got distracted by the (many) wrong answers in the question, and the accepted (!) wrong answer.

Indeed, there is subtlety there beyond the textbook definition of "to get over" -- reopening.

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  • @Jeff: Thanks for providing your input here on what you consider on/off-topic. Since there seems to be a disconnect between what you and the community feel is acceptable, more input on your views can only help. But (and this is a genuine enquiry) this question is also answered straight out of the dictionary. Should that also be closed? Has the policy changed since you asked it, or is there a subtlety to the question I'm missing (very possible!)? We would really value your input on where the line should be drawn.
    – psmears
    Jul 14, 2011 at 10:50
  • @psm no problem, I deleted my question per your request. Happy to follow up on anything like that while we're sorting out the moderation problems on this site.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Jul 14, 2011 at 11:15
  • @Jeff: Thanks - that helps clarify things (a little :). But more input from you on what the boundaries are is sorely needed. For instance: regarding the particular question being discussed here - though the dictionary definition appears to answer the question in the title, the question body gives the context as getting over an (unnamed) tool. That's not an ailment, nor a startling experience; nor is it a difficulty. The dictionary definition doesn't actually apply - and there is a genuine semantic leap from the dictionary definitions to the one the writer intended. Why is that off-topic?
    – psmears
    Jul 14, 2011 at 11:34
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    @psm I see your point. edited my answer.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Jul 14, 2011 at 11:52
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    @Jeff: Thanks, much appreciated :) That is often the trouble with EL&U: questions often appear trivial at first glance, but on closer inspection there's a real subtle point to address. Believe me, if it were all about pasting links to dictionary definitions, I wouldn't have stuck around here! :)
    – psmears
    Jul 14, 2011 at 12:11
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    @Jeff: Thinking about this a little more, something that might help the perception of the site's quality would be to encourage people, when adding an answer to a question such as this (where the title looks "dictionary", but it's not), to edit the title to point out where the subtlety is i.e. improve the title to make it clear it's not a very basic question. (Experts on usage tend to be used to the complex-stuff-looks-simple issue, so the resident experts usually haven't been doing this, but I do see how site newcomers could get the wrong impression that everything here is basic/trivial!)
    – psmears
    Jul 14, 2011 at 13:18
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The question What is the meaning of "I've gotten over __ recently"? (link for 10k users) has been deleted three hours ago. I must say it was none of our moderators who deleted it.

screenshot

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