Can you let us retract questions?

June 26, 2006 11:27 PM

Can you put in the ability to retract a question? When you ask something and someone immediately tells you the (incredibly obvious) answer, and you feel like a total dolt for asking it in the first place, can you ask for it to be retracted and have it deleted?

I refer you to this recent thread of mine.
posted by IndigoRain to Feature Requests at 11:27 PM (32 comments total)

Bear in mind that you have just published a very concise "question and answer" page which someone else may find and benefit from.

This wasn't that stupid a question. Really. There are probably lots of folks out there who would ask the same thing. Let the page stand and get indexed by Google and help others.
posted by scarabic at 11:39 PM on June 26, 2006

btw - the same argument about trading things in applies to cars. Why not just sell your used car to a private party? Well... there are reasons: convenience, not wanting to invest time and energy making the car meet various minimum standards for sale (both mechanical and bureaucratic). Perhaps convenience is the only reason someone would "trade in" a laptop, but selling shit on eBay isn't for everyone.
posted by scarabic at 11:42 PM on June 26, 2006

http://www.hp.com/united-states/tradein/promo/notebook2/index.html
http://dealnews.com/deals/Sony-Notebook-Trade-In-Program-Up-to-454-for-your-old-laptop/122603.html
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/ebtext.to?page=tradeups

HP, Sony, and Toshiba all have trade-in programs. 2 seconds on Google. None of the people who made you feel like a dolt even looked.
posted by scarabic at 11:44 PM on June 26, 2006

Well, Scarabic, I don't think those 3 trade-in programs offer money, just credit towards a new laptop.
posted by IndigoRain at 12:04 AM on June 27, 2006

Mine was the immediate answer that made you feel like a dolt? Awesome.
posted by Jimbob at 12:16 AM on June 27, 2006

For future reference, if you'd like to request deletion without compounding your embarrassment by opening a second thread that will attract more attention, you could just e-mail one of the admins, mathowie or jessamyn.
posted by cribcage at 12:24 AM on June 27, 2006

Metafilter does't like deletions, if you hang out here on Metatalk long enough (about 5 minutes) you will see that. Think before you post, because once you hit post that baby is off into the giant untamed jungle that is Meta and it's gonna take an administrative act of god to get it back.
posted by sophist at 12:53 AM on June 27, 2006

please don't worry about it. there is enough noise there that wont be deleted (shouldn't be either?) that your little bit isn't hurting anything. also - it was a reasonable question with useful answers. you dolt.
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 1:40 AM on June 27, 2006

Serves you right, IndigoRain. I told you it was Oregon Trail!
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:39 AM on June 27, 2006

Oh, wait. I didn't read the damn question!
posted by Smart Dalek at 3:40 AM on June 27, 2006

You can email mathowie or I if you're really humiliated by a question you've asked. Sometime we've deleted questions where someone has asked something about their relationship and then their SO has found out and flipped out, for example. Usually we'll try to keep the question in, often the OPs think their questions are worse than the people reading them do.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:56 AM on June 27, 2006

Yeah, the only thing that stinks about that question was MeFi's inability to answer it properly.
posted by MrZero at 5:33 AM on June 27, 2006

Indigo: don't worry about it, seriously. Even if your question wasn't great, your phrasing was intelligent enough to flag you as a smart guy just blanking out for a moment. Lynchings, or at least the really nasty ones, are reserved for the genuinely stupid.
posted by Ryvar at 6:10 AM on June 27, 2006

Time for your lynching, Ryvar.

BUUUUUUUURN
posted by cortex at 6:55 AM on June 27, 2006

O NO U DINT
posted by Ryvar at 7:01 AM on June 27, 2006

"mathowie or me". Sorry. Pet peeve. You wouldn't say "You can email I" so you shouldn't say "You can email mathowie or I".
posted by flabdablet at 7:51 AM on June 27, 2006

Thanks for the grammar lesson. Are you going to tell Ryvar how to spell 'didn't' also? RLY?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:04 AM on June 27, 2006

ROFL. 2 bad for JESSAMYN that she doesnt work at a place with GRAMMER BOOK! n00b!
posted by dios at 8:10 AM on June 27, 2006

Ryvar and me think you can take your fancy-nancy "didn't" and cram it.
posted by cortex at 8:29 AM on June 27, 2006

LOLS. cortex shows he cant spell too. thats one of them ponynostrilicals. Am i rite?
posted by dios at 8:33 AM on June 27, 2006

Dios, gehzundheit.
posted by oddman at 8:43 AM on June 27, 2006

*cants spell to turn dios into a newt*
posted by If I Had An Anus at 8:46 AM on June 27, 2006

You can email I, also, and me'll be sure to crap in the thread. Maybe then it'll get deleted as chatfilter. Or at least us will have a good time.
posted by Plutor at 8:46 AM on June 27, 2006

Why does no one post inline GIFs of their pet peeves? I'll bet some of them are adorable.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:11 AM on June 27, 2006

Every question I've asked has had an answer within 10 minutes, and I usually feel really stupid for asking them afterwards. Still, I hope my personal humiliation helps someone else find their answer.
posted by dw at 9:39 AM on June 27, 2006

Kirth, that should be "...post inline GMEFs..."
posted by cortex at 9:43 AM on June 27, 2006

Witnessing humiliation is the only reason I come here. Stop trying to rain on my parade.
posted by Carbolic at 9:44 AM on June 27, 2006

posted by flabdablet at 10:23 AM on June 27, 2006

Just for you Kirth:


posted by deborah at 1:09 PM on June 27, 2006

I guess I was wrong. Those aren't adorable at all. Why would you keep them as pets?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:38 PM on June 27, 2006

OMG deborah. ROTFL. It needs to go slower though, I can't read that fast! Where did you get that?
posted by radioamy at 1:49 PM on June 27, 2006

Image Shack

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/6026/86103460na.gif
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:00 AM on June 28, 2006