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Why was this question (not mine, although I answered) deleted? It's currently at net +4 (with one favorite), and several constructive answers, but it was deleted by Shog9. Per the FAQ,

Generally we only delete closed, low scoring posts with no answers or poor answers. Closed posts are all "candidates for deletion" but generally only irrecoverably off topic/poor questions without useful information in answers should be deleted.

but this doesn't seem to me to meet that standard.

The asker's account seems to have been deleted as well, but since the question was deleted by a mod I figured that was separate.

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  • 4
    Just speculation but judging by the account being deleted - it's possible the user requested the post be deleted, and thereafter deleted his account. Possibly to avoid further trouble at the office
    – ballBreaker
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 15:23
  • 2
    Comments also seemed to be devolving quickly into an argument about the appropriateness of her clothing, as well, which is a derail at best.
    – BradC
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 15:27
  • 2
    Trolls in our Halls...
    – gnat
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 15:46
  • There have been several troll for points type questions recently by a couple of users. I am glad they are being cleaned up. I lost over 100 points rep today myself, but I don't really care about the points if junk questions are removed.
    – Neo
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 16:24
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    I lost over 1200 rep from a good-faith answer to one of those (before the pattern became apparent). I'm not the only one, for sure -- lots of people put in effort trying to help people solve what we thought were real problems. That sucks, but leaving these up so the poster can point and snicker at us isn't good either.
    – Monica Cellio Mod
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 16:27
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    @MonicaCellio Is there an option to delete the garbage while retain the reputation earned by your efforts?
    – Neo
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 16:52
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    @MisterPositive one keeps the reputation for the post even if it eventually gets deleted if it has score of 3 or greater and was visible on the site for at least 60 days
    – gnat
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 16:59
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    I would also point out: "favourites" are as often used by people to keep track of a bad question, as they are by people noting a good question. Voting pattern is not a good indicator of popularity (because HNQ, and UV is available long before DV), not an indicator at all of topicality, and "favourites" is not an indicator of anything except how many people clicked the star.
    – user53718
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 21:20
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    @Nij Indeed, I think "bookmark" is a better name for what is now known as "favourites". I "favourite" questions not necessarily because that is the best question I have read in my lifetime, but because I want to come back to it later for one or the other reason. It is also a broader term which encompasses "favourites" in a sense.
    – Masked Man
    Commented Mar 18, 2017 at 3:07

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
38

I left a comment on the question when I deleted it, but I'll elaborate here...

The moderators caught wind of a group of sockpuppets operating on the site, and asked me to investigate. It quickly became apparent that several questions asked within the past few weeks had all been created by the same person, running multiple accounts and creating these scenarios - and associated "personalities" to go with them - for the purpose of trolling the community here.

I've removed most of the fake accounts and associated questions, leaving the question of what to do with the remains in the moderators' hands.

As a reminder to everyone: this sort of behavior has arisen many times over the years, and we've learned the hard way that it only leads to problems. Please read:

See also:

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    Good investigative work, and thanks for letting the community know.
    – Old_Lamplighter
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 15:46
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    wonder how many of deleted troll questions went HNQ. This probably can be relatively easy discovered by 10K users with Passant's trick ("when you google the question for an exact phrase of the question title then you'll see hits at physics.stackexchange.com, serverfault.com, unix.stackexchange.com, stats.stackexchange.com and tex.stackexchange.com...")
    – gnat
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 15:54
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    Probably all of them. But the real cost here is in the time, mental energy, and goodwill to the folks who took the time to edit and answer assuming good faith.
    – Shog9
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 16:00
  • I see, thanks. Trouble With Popularity, business as usual.
    – gnat
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 16:11
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    Thank you Shog9 for your help. I know its your job but what you do matters to us.
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Commented Mar 17, 2017 at 17:38
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    Why on earth would someone go to that much effort?
    – Kilisi
    Commented Mar 18, 2017 at 4:31
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    @Kilisi why would they not? When they get so much attention, answers, views, upvotes, comments - doesn't it feel good. Getting all of this "in exchange" of few minutes of typing what's in their head sounds like a good deal. Note that all of this feedback is mostly positive which likely makes them think they are doing the right thing
    – gnat
    Commented Mar 18, 2017 at 7:09
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    ...it is a matter of entertainment isn't it
    – gnat
    Commented Mar 18, 2017 at 7:16
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    @gnat ah well. to each their own I guess, I don't see a need to make up questions or have multiple accounts to do that. But maybe that's why most of the feedback I get is negative. I thought it's just because negative comments tends to be more vocal.
    – Kilisi
    Commented Mar 18, 2017 at 7:19
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    @Kilisi when I was young, I would do such things for the LULZ, especially if I thought a place was being run by a jerk. I ended up shutting down a few forums, back in the day. Not proud of that fact and certainly wouldn't do it today. A lack of maturity, boredom, and free time is all the excuse anyone needs.
    – Old_Lamplighter
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 13:21

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