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In the last 10 hours, I've had two accepted answers that have been deleted by the (same) post author. Since my answers were the only ones and they weren't upvoted (maybe because the deletion took places minutes after my answers), the post author could delete its two questions.

Now I am not whining about the loss of reputation, but what annoys me is that I took the time to write detailled answers, which were of sufficient quality to be accepted, but they were deleted nonetheless.

What I would suggest is that in order to delete a post, the condition "has only one answer, but that answer has no upvotes" becomes "has only one answer, but that answer is not accepted and has no upvotes". I know that the post author could unaccept an answer before deleting his post, but that could be a way to remind them that stackexchange is not only a forum to ask and be answered, but also a database of content that can be used by future users.

Another suggestion: how about blocking deletion during the 24h after an answer was posted? That way, it has a chance to be upvoted.

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    $\begingroup$ cs.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1709/…. BTW, I agree with the comments to the post. $\endgroup$
    – user114966
    Apr 11, 2021 at 17:51
  • $\begingroup$ Sorry for the duplicate, thanks for pointing out this post (I quickly searched if it was already asked, but obviously not enough). If I understand correctly the first answer, I can raise a flag to ask for these post to be undeleted? $\endgroup$
    – Nathaniel
    Apr 11, 2021 at 17:57
  • $\begingroup$ That's my understanding too (but I'm not sure where the flag should be raised). $\endgroup$
    – user114966
    Apr 11, 2021 at 17:58
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    $\begingroup$ By checking recently deleted answers, (cs.stackexchange.com/users/recently-deleted-answers + iduser), you can check the corresponding deleted questions. $\endgroup$
    – Nathaniel
    Apr 11, 2021 at 18:02
  • $\begingroup$ Cool, thanks for the link! $\endgroup$
    – user114966
    Apr 11, 2021 at 18:05
  • $\begingroup$ This is a known, annoying problem: help vampires get an answer to cheat and then delete to cover their tracks. When we catch it, we can undelete, but you can't flag and there's no automatism. Sucks. The only advise I can offer is to sherlock the question: if it's a problem dump, maybe let it sit for a while before answering. $\endgroup$
    – Raphael Mod
    Apr 12, 2021 at 22:27
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    $\begingroup$ @Raphael Well, since I can see my deleted answers, I can flag it, and I did (consequently, the corresponding post were undeleted). I just did not know this was a valid reason to flag. $\endgroup$
    – Nathaniel
    Apr 13, 2021 at 0:41
  • $\begingroup$ I had a similar problem and raised a flag. The question was undeleted by a moderator only to be edited and deleted again by the original poster. Any advice on how to handle these cases? As Nathaniel says, 15 reputation is not a big deal but it is quite annoying to sink a bunch of time to answer a question (and provide clarifications in the comments!) only to see it deleted by a user that is clearly abusing the system (I later found out that the question was cross posted and that the user has multiple accounts...). $\endgroup$
    – Steven
    Apr 14, 2021 at 15:30
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    $\begingroup$ @Steven, flag as many times as needed, and moderators will handle it. If you're aware of cross-posting or multiple accounts that we haven't noticed, let us know that as well. We do take action in response to these reports. I'll second the link to cs.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1709/…, including the comments there. $\endgroup$
    – D.W. Mod
    Apr 14, 2021 at 18:13

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