Why am I unable to delete my answers, despite Stack Overflow rules allowing it?

Question

(This question has nothing to do with licence changes).

From: https://stackoverflow.com/help/deleted-answers

Answers can be deleted at any time by their authors, unless the answer has been accepted by the question asker.

From How does deleting work? What can cause a post to be deleted, and what does that actually mean? What are the criteria for deletion?

The author can typically delete their own posts at will.

When I exercise this right, it would appear that moderators of the community take it upon themselves to deny it.

I expect moderators to uphold the rights of all community members. It appears in this instance that has not occurred, and instead moderators act against the rights of its members.

If there is some sort of dependency between how moderators have been trained to act, and the documentation above, could that please be highlighted. Furthermore, could any other discrepancies please be highlighted.

My expectation going forward is that moderators will undo the reverts to restore my answers to the state that they should been in - deleted.

Answer 1

In all of this it's important to remember that you've licensed your content to SE and while you still hold the copyright, they have the right to distribute that content. Also note that the system generates a flag if you delete too much, too quickly. There are times when your right to delete content clashes with SE's right to distribute said content.

For me (speaking as a moderator on several sites) it all depends on how many of your posts you are deleting and over what time frame. It also matters, in the case of answers, what the score is and how many competing answers there are.

If you're just deleting one or two posts every month or so then that's generally not a problem. If you're deleting low scoring answers where there's at least one competing answer to the question then that's generally not a problem. You're probably just removing content that either wrong, outdated or doesn't add anything new.

Where it get's complicated is when you're deleting large numbers of posts over a short period of time or yours is the only answer.

In the first case that could be a sign of a rage quit. This is often (but not always) accompanied by the vandalising of posts that can't be deleted - questions and accepted answers. In these cases we need to know and restore the content.

In the second case we have to consider whether having a partial answer is better than having no answer at all.

So, to sum up. It all depends on why you are removing content. If you're doing it because the post isn't useful then that should be OK. However, if you are doing it because you want to make a point, you don't want your content on SE or some other reason then that's not OK. As I said at the start of this answer, by posting you've given SE the right to distribute your content. If you don't want them to have that right any more you need to contact them directly and sort it out that way, most likely by having the content disassociated from your account.

Answer 2

It seems like the dispute here is that there is a difference between having the ability to delete a post, in the technical sense, versus the guidelines that explain when it is considered "okay" to delete a post.

You linked to a Meta community wiki answer that explains those two different criteria. Near the top of the accepted answer is a section that describes under what conditions a user has the technical ability to delete an answer or question:

By a user:

1. The author can typically delete their own posts at will; for exceptions, see When can't I delete my own post? below. To delete a post, just use the delete link below it, on the left (only available from a browser, not the SE/SO app).

However, that same answer also describes the conditions for when it is considered acceptable to use that capability:

For answers, any post that is not an answer (should be a comment, doesn't answer the question, etc.) should be deleted. Answers that are wrong or that dispense poor advice should be downvoted, not deleted.

These are general guidelines; some communities in the network may uphold more specific reasons to delete posts or not. For example, on Puzzling.SE, answers to a puzzle without explanation are subject to deletion, and some technical sites will delete answers which are not only wrong but also harmful when tried.

It seems to me that the most straightforward interpretation of this is that once you've posted content (and given SE license to that content, per the terms of service), there may be conditions when you are technically able to push the delete button, yet it is not considered acceptable to do so. If you have posted an answer, you will have a delete button under most cases.

In a sense, this is broadly consistent with other site functionality - there are many cases where we have technical functions available - yet, that does not imply that we are freely able to use them at will, because there are site guidelines that provide clarification on when it is (or is not) considered acceptable.

Answer 3

This question has nothing to do with licence changes

Be that as it may, I still encourage you read the answers posted by us in the moderator team on the related discussion.

The other answers here give a good in-depth explanation. The short answer is in the FAQ you quote:

The author can typically delete their own posts at will

What you are trying to do is rather atypical. Guidelines remaining what they are, as moderators we are exception handlers that step in where the normal process and community management break down. One such instance is in mass-deletions of answers which is tantamount to vandalising site contributions. Once you submit a post, you automatically lose full control of that content. When it is in the community's best interest that those posts remain where they are, it's our mandate as moderators to step in. Here that will mean:

• we undelete these posts
• we suspend the account temporarily to stop the deletions

There is really not much else that we as moderators are able to do. If you wish to distance yourself from the site to this extent, account deletion remains the only real option. There is simply no way of mass-deleting content you've submitted that was well received.