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I see this post has one deleted answer that has some good advice and received three upvotes. Why was it deleted? My presumption is the user was aiming to earn the disciplined badge but perhaps there was another reason.

For the sake of answering unanswered questions, is it acceptable to take content from a deleted answer to add to an answer if the deleted answer is cited/mentioned?

ADDENDUM 1/28/2021

After seeing another post with a deleted lone answer having a positive score by that same user I decided to make a query on data SE to find answers in that same category. It appears that deleted answers don't have an OwnerUserId attached anymore. The results show that there are currently 30 such posts on the CR site by various users.

I also left a comment on one of the users non-deleted posts and invited that user to a chat room.

ADDENDUM 2/2/2021

Community wiki created

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Why was it deleted?

Only the deleter can correctly answer that question. It is possible it was for the disciplined badge, as the user got the badge two minutes after deleting the post. But it's also reasonable to think the user deleted an answer where part of the answer is out of date or wrong.

But how does speculating about the deleter's action improve Code Review?

Never ASSUME, because when you ASSUME, you make an ASS of U and ME
– Felix Unger (The Odd Couple Season 3 Episode My Strife in Court - Jerry Belson)

Lets assume you're right, what should we do? Should it be ok to then take from the answer? But what if your assumption is wrong? Should it then not be ok to then take from the answer? How can we prove the deleter's intent without asking the deleter?

This all just seems like the wrong route to build a site policy around. It would be far better to build site policies around things we can prove where possible.

For the sake of answering unanswered questions, is it acceptable to take content from a deleted answer to add to an answer if the deleted answer is cited/mentioned?

No, we shouldn't have special rules for unanswered questions.


Is it acceptable to take content from a deleted answer to add to an answer if the deleted answer is cited/mentioned?

This is explicitly allowed by the CC-BY SA license - the license user contributions are submitted under. Since the answer has always been under CC-BY SA 3.0 we can look at the terms of the license.
Note: this is the human readable summary of the license.

You are free to:

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.


Under the following terms:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported © Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license

If all you're doing is quoting another answer then you may deem it unfair to get reputation from another person's labours. So you can make the answer a community wiki.

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    \$\begingroup\$ My former supervisor used to recite that quotation frequently. Its because of that quote that I updated my preferred nomenclature such that the word "assume" is replaced with "presume". I have been thinking about it lately... it might not always be the case that an ASS is made of both parties, but perhaps sometimes just the one who makes the assumption. \$\endgroup\$ Jan 28, 2021 at 17:35
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    \$\begingroup\$ @SᴀᴍOnᴇᴌᴀ I agree, whenever I assume it always feels like I'm the only one being made into an ass. But then again I've never asked for anyone else's opinion... I guess I'm in assume-ception ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – Peilonrayz Mod
    Jan 28, 2021 at 18:01

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