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Dear SimilarWorlds....

With the greatest of respect, PLEASE erase questions that are withdrawn !

I know i grumble about this regularly BUT it's really frustrating when you spend time researching correct information for a reply and then find you can't post it !!

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Faust76 · 46-50, M

That request doesn't seem to make sense. People erasing their questions is the problem, and that problem persists even when they delete their questions right after you respond. Not being able to delete/change questions would be, in some sense, "better". I agree with people's right to delete their words, but that shouldn't necessarily give them a right to delete the words of everybody who has replied and prevent people from posting replies. Maybe have it say "This questions has been deleted by the author", but still show all responses and allow posting responses?

SW-User

@Faust76 But what would people respond to if the question / experience is gone?

Faust76 · 46-50, M

Responding doesn't matter after it's been deleted. But I get what the OP is about, in principle: Happens to me all the time I'm taking lots of time to write a long, thought-out response, only to get told the question no longer exists when I click "Post Comment". (Or, even more commonly, find out it's been deleted after I've responded - although, conversely, they do also have the right to delete individual responses to their question...). So this solution would be just to not censure & waste time of those who already spent time responding. Of course, we'd still complain, because most of the time the response won't make sense without the question. But it's still slightly better than finding out we can't post response we already wrote, or that the one we wrote went to bit-heaven because the question-asked didn't like someone other response.

SW-User

@Faust76 I understand the OP's feelings too on this. Perhaps what needs to happen is that if the post is deleted, the website should check for any open responses and then send a message to them indicating the post is gone. But it won't be seen until one comes back to the screen (saying they're away when it is broadcast).

Faust76 · 46-50, M

See, that's where I disagree, it makes no practical difference whether the question is deleted when I'm on the last line of the reply, or ten seconds after I send the reply. It would indeed require resources to track every response and notify me when the question I'm replying to is deleted, while it might save me from typing that last sentence of the reply...

If it's all the same to you when they delete the question right after your reply, then not posting the response is fine too. In fact, in the latter case you can post the response as separate story, mail it to the person privately, or post it to their another question (Frequently they deleted it to re-ask it with some small change). So having the question deleted right after your response is actually much more annoying.

SW-User

@Faust76 Annoying, yes. But people have their reasons for deleting. It sucks if it's felt that the response wasn't read, or that it wasn't able to be posted, but this method is pretty much the same no matter where you go on the internet.