39

If I delete my answer, I can edit it deleted. But to edit my deleted question I must undelete it. Why this inconsistency?

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18

You cannot edit a self-deleted question, as this was open to abuse. To quote Oded's explanation:

With edit, it is now enabled on deleted questions, unless they are self deletes, as this can open a window to abuse (self delete, edit and later undelete immediately).

To prevent users from completely altering a question in the 'dark', a question needs to be undeleted for the author to edit it themselves. This way questions cannot be abused to work around question limits either; take an old deleted question, make it into a new question, undelete, in the hopes that it'll be received better, etc.

As deleted questions don't get shown in the active posts list, no-one could then review the edit.

If the question was deleted by anyone else, you can still edit it.

You can trivially bypass the restriction by viewing the revision history of the post (see View instead of edit on Meta if the question was never edited before), copying the markdown source, then editing the post in a text editor elsewhere, then pasting in the new version the moment you undelete the post.

However, this then does bump the post to the top of the active questions list, hopefully drawing the needed attention to the question to review the changes made.

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  • 1
    Why doesn't it apply for answers? (And btw, Oded, not Shog) – nicael Dec 30 '14 at 10:00
  • 2
    @nicael: because answers don't take the question with them when deleted, while a question when deleted takes a (single, not yet voted on) answer with it. – Martijn Pieters Dec 30 '14 at 10:00
  • @nicael: but if people were to find a way to abuse self-deleting answers and use it regularly, it'll be disabled for answers too, I'm sure. – Martijn Pieters Dec 30 '14 at 10:02
  • 1
    I can't see I really follow the difference wouldn't it still show in the revision history? BTW looks like that quote was from Oded. – PeterJ Dec 30 '14 at 10:05
  • 1
    @PeterJ: hehe, indeed; I got to that post by way of a post from Shog linking to it. – Martijn Pieters Dec 30 '14 at 10:07
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    Why is this any different from undeleting then pasting in an updated version a nanosecond afterwards? – Martin Smith Dec 30 '14 at 10:10
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    @MartinSmith: edit then undelete doesn't bump the question up to the top of the active posts list, while undelete then edit does. – Martijn Pieters Jan 16 '15 at 22:06
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    Well the correct solution would be to make undeleting the question bump it then. Otherwise I could edit the question to something spammy, delete it, wait a week, undelete it. – Martin Smith Jan 17 '15 at 0:11
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    @MartijnPieters Wow, that's a rare known fact it seems. Should be made more prominent. Well, apparently I never needed to do so, hence I didn't notice. – πάντα ῥεῖ Feb 13 '17 at 18:48
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    Maybe this restriction could be lifted upon reaching a certaing reputation level? I just found myself in the situation that I posted a question by mistake while I was still writing it. I thought "ok, no problem, delete it, finish editing, and then undelete". But nope! :) – AJPerez Jan 19 '18 at 9:00

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