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I have clearly have lost confidence in Parenting. The topic is just too subjective to have clear answers on questions asked. I don't want to take part anylonger. How could I delete my contributions? The same question for delinking my account to Parenting.

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This has come up a number of times on Meta Stack Overflow:

If a question has little activity (upvotes, answers, etc.), it can be deleted by the OP. But otherwise, the answer is: you can't.

When you post on any Stack Exchange site, your questions and answers are published under a Creative Commons license for reuse, which you cannot arbitrarily terminate. Once a question has some answers, it has become just one part of a greater whole. Allowing users to remove not just their own content but also content contributed by the community would damage the site.

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Even if you choose to leave the site, why would you want to delete your contributions, which could be valuable to parents struggling with these issues? The only reason to delete would be if you think you have published wrong information.

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I just came back to find a sollution. Unfortunately it is thus not possible :( Don't get me wrong, I general think the stackexchange platform is great. Parenting is just one of those topics that does not belong on a stackexchange platform. It is just too subjective. There is no clear answer to any parenting question, so all answers will turn into discussions and would lead to generic blabla, or what someone else on this forum called soapboxing. I still stand behind any advice that I have given, but just came to realize that it might a be wrong answer for someone living in totally different context. But still you could argue it is nice to know different angles. But then it becomes completely irrelevant to downvote or close questions. The turning point for me, was the closing of question relating immunization. If there is one question that might not be subjective in the end it is the immunization one. But people did not like the answers because it did not fit their conspiracy theory. When I saw it being closed, I really laughed out loud. It was closed on being subjective and argumentative. It was hilarious. And then other examples started appearing. Take this example. Homeschooling is completely forbidden in my part of the world. I would consider it completely stupid to homeschool you kids. For me it is denying your kid exposure to the outside world. But then maybe in some parts of the world you just need to.

Yet another nasty examples, is where I have asked when siblings should have separate rooms. Someone deemed it appropriate to change that in "same-sex siblings". This makes it a completely different question, still it seems like I have asked that question. Okay I could role back which I did. I find it really worrying that when I ask a question about sharing a bedroom, some pervert needs to put a sexual connotation to that question.

So although I would agree that deleting the post would mess up the answers, but again that is why parenting should not be on the SE platform. Fine if you consider it a forum, but then don't downvote, don't close and don't let others change contributions.

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    Having participated in this site for some days, I very much agree with you that the SE format is not a good match for a "mostly-subjective" topic such as parenting. Upvoting "good suggestions" makes perfect sense to me, but downvoting makes sense only if there is a (scientifically?) proven argument against it. You mention very good examples! Immunization is a very controversial topic; here in Austria, even the pediatricians can't agree! As for "same-sex", it could have been called "same-gender" instead; it's not meant to indicate intercourse... but to us non-English natives, it does! Apr 4, 2011 at 12:06
  • On your point about people raising kids in a different culture or context, I think in some cases people should accompany the context with their answer. Such as "This answer only applies to teenagers" or "This answer applies to those living in Finland" or whatever. Apr 4, 2011 at 20:31
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    Also, on your point about people's activities on the site... I think it is a different audience from other SE sites, and we need to give the community some time to "figure out how it works". Apr 4, 2011 at 20:32
  • Probably, immunization question is more suited for sceptics.se, especially since there is such a question already: skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/95/… Apr 6, 2011 at 8:17
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I'm sorry to see you go! I think you've made several very good contributions, and you also have the rep points to prove it. You've been very active, and so have I, so I feel partly at fault. If that's the case, I sincerely apologize. You're right that the site is subjective by nature, and we must all learn to navigate the SE engine carefully; we're not used to dealing with SE content that's not clearly black-and-white.

You can delete your content using the "delete" link under your answer, right next to the "edit" link. I think there's a similar link for your questions, too. I don't know a way to delete your account itself, but I'm sure the moderators will come by here and answer that.

I would like to beg you to not delete your answers because your contributions are valuable. Still, they're yours to edit as you like (update: but apparently not yours to really delete, according to the license stated in this answer).

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  • Dori's answer seems to be missing. I think it contains useful information about this answer - that the licence and ToS etc means other users can undelete your posts if you try to delete them. Is that correct?
    – user19912
    Dec 14, 2015 at 12:37
  • Ironically, that answer had been self-deleted. I've now undeleted it, since it does have a very assortment of links. @LeopoldoSparks see link edited into this question
    – Acire
    Dec 14, 2015 at 12:55
  • @Erica thank you!
    – user19912
    Dec 14, 2015 at 21:27
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I second what has been stated here already. Sorry to see you go, but please consider leaving your contributions.

I have been on communities where members deleted all of their contributions and it messed things up. Others would look for their questions and answers having seen it before and wanting to find it again but couldn't. It just ruins the atmosphere of the community to have members comments and posts ripped away...

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    ...especially at this early stage where we haven't got much content yet, so you'd be removing a significant contribution. Apr 1, 2011 at 6:33
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To actually answer the question, I think it should be possibly for you to delete all your contributions yourself, if you wish, although finding all comments may be a bit of work.

I don't know about the account though, I can't see a way to delete that.

But I agree it seems to be an overreaction.

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