14
$\begingroup$

Why was my question Is the Frog game solvable in the root of a full binary tree? deleted?

It was a cross-post, but I followed all recommended advices when doing so.

It was also decently upvoted (12+).

It was fine for 2 years, but now it is suddenly deleted.

I'm really confused.

I wanted to suggest undeletion, but it says it was deleted by a moderator.

$\endgroup$
3
  • $\begingroup$ Since many people won't be able to see the deleted question here on MO, I will add at least a link to the version posted on Mathematics: Is the Frog game solvable in the root of a full binary tree? $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Oct 18, 2022 at 12:23
  • $\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak MSE version is longer as it expands on an approach that in the end, seems like a dead end. MO version (deleted) is a more compact version asking about alternatives, here is source on pastebin that anyone not having access to deleted questions can temporarily copy paste here to see the deleted question. $\endgroup$
    – Vepir
    Commented Oct 18, 2022 at 12:53
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ it was perhaps deleted by mistake; I would flag it for moderator attention and request an "undelete". $\endgroup$
    – Carlo Beenakker
    Commented Oct 18, 2022 at 13:24

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
17
$\begingroup$

Cross-posting is generally frowned upon, the post was flagged as a cross-post, and with no answer it is my general approach to simply delete the cross-post.

However, in this case the post had gone through the "appropriate route" for cross-posting, and this shouldn't have been deleted. I apologise for the mistake and the inconvenience it caused and have now undeleted the question.

$\endgroup$
5
  • $\begingroup$ I honestly cannot understand why absence of an answer can ever be a reason for removal of a question. Also I cannot understand why cross-posting is frowned upon at all; if question is good, it's better to have two places where people can find it then to have one such place. $\endgroup$
    – Denis T
    Commented Oct 24, 2022 at 3:31
  • $\begingroup$ It is very annoying, and I'm speaking from a lot of experience, to put time and effort into trying to help someone, only to find out that the remarks you come up with were already made by someone else, and you could have spent those six hours making a different progress, from a different point. If I have money, and I'm hungry, I'm not calling three pizza places. I'm calling one. Even though all three would take my money. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Oct 24, 2022 at 5:54
  • $\begingroup$ There are two parameters you can optimise for. First one is your annoyance, or negative thereof. Second is probability of obtaining an easily google-able answer for a question that some person learning/doing math found important/interesting. If you wish to optimise for the first one, you can stop answering questions; if for the second one, probably you should stop complaining. Also if your remarks are of fast food quality and could be easily replicated by someone else, why do you bother to write them at all? Instead of producing replacement-level math text, you could make different progress! $\endgroup$
    – Denis T
    Commented Oct 24, 2022 at 6:26
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @DenisT So your solution is to have people stop answering question? What's the point in creating communities of experts then? And yes, similar annoyance happens when people post the same question (forget Google, sometimes classmates do it within the hour). But how is that is something that I, or SE, can optimise for? It sounds like you're only seeing one small side of cross posting, and not the whole picture. Trust me, I've been far more active than you for longer, when I say it's a problem. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Oct 24, 2022 at 6:58
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @DenisT It's not clear at all that having the same question repeated twice helps people find what they're looking for on Google. It's better to see 8 relevant results than 4 results repeated twice. $\endgroup$
    – Will Sawin
    Commented Oct 27, 2022 at 1:24

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .