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As discussed in What should our policy on insults, vulgarity, profanity, and other possibly offensive material be? , a very popular question has just been deleted.

Like other users, I noticed a massive drop in my own reputation, and as usual, I didn't know why.

Here's a few other examples (sorry to use personal examples, but I can't easily access other peoples' deleted answers.)

Another example of a deleted question, on which I had the only upvoted answer.

https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/q/26193/15599

An example of one of the closed (but not deleted) code-trolling questions.

Help!! How to do square root!

Now, from my own experience, it seems that when a question is closed answerers keep their reputation. But when a question is deleted the answerer's reputation simply vanishes without trace.

So I have the following questions:

  1. When a question is deleted, is it fair to penalise answerers by removing the reputation gained?
  2. Should the reputation simply vanish without trace (as at present), or should there be some kind of record on the user profile of the reputation being gained and lost? (There's a button to display this on my own profile, but I can't find it on other peoples'.)
  3. Does deleting a question always automatically lead to reputation disappearing in this way, or are ther ways users can keep their reputation? (I had understood by some of the discussions on code-trolling that there was a way for a question to be deleted and the answerer to keep their reputation.)
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  1. Yes. This has been discussed on meta.SE many times over -- it's not a "penalty"; it's simply removing reputation that never should have been there in the first place.
  2. You can't see other users' deleted posts by design; they're... well, they're deleted.
  3. If your post has a score of +3 or above and it has existed for 2 months or more, you will not lose reputation if it is deleted.
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  • \$\begingroup\$ Doorknob 1. OK but People will see it as a penalty, regardless. 2.In principle I see no problem with a discreet listing marked simply "deleted post" in the reputation count (the post itself being inaccessible.) In accountancy or stock management, such a record of all transactions would be a requirement. I was really confused the first time I lost rep over a deleted question, and I only found the button to review my own deleted question transactions today. 3. I wasn't sure what the rule was, thank you for clarifying. \$\endgroup\$
    – Level River St
    Commented May 29, 2014 at 23:25
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    \$\begingroup\$ @steveverrill 1. That's a problem to raise on meta.SE, not here (and indeed has been many times). 2. Also for meta.SE. Not sure if that's been asked yet; you can if you want to. \$\endgroup\$
    – Doorknob Mod
    Commented May 29, 2014 at 23:28
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Doorknob You guys can discuss anything here; mSE is only if you want to go there. \$\endgroup\$
    – hichris123
    Commented May 31, 2014 at 3:31

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