11
\$\begingroup\$

It may be just me, but it seems kind of bothersome that we have 500-odd undeleted answers in the Sandbox. Many of them have already been posted for real but not edited to reflect that. More (I think it's more) have been abandoned and are unlikely to ever be revived. (I've almost never seen an abandoned post taken over by someone else, or even the originator.)

Surely a Sandbox with only 10-20 undeleted, or at least clearly active answers at any one time would be much easier for everyone to use.

What do you think? What should we do about it? (Apologies if this topic has been broached and decided before.)

Vote for these possibilities in the answers to this question, or add your own. Please only up-vote one.

  1. Do nothing. This is not an issue.
  2. Delete as much as possible - including all posted challenges and anything clearly abandoned.
  3. Edit posted with consistent links, keep abandoned for potential future use.
  4. Edit posted with consistent links, delete abandoned.
  5. Delete posted challenges, keep abandoned.

The Sandbox Submission Directory has similar problems sometimes. But luckily we have people like professorfish who deal with that. :)

\$\endgroup\$
6
  • 6
    \$\begingroup\$ I'm very wary of the phrase "clearly abandoned". E.g. finishing the elliptic curve DH one is still on my TODO list, just at a lower priority than a few other items. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peter Taylor
    Commented Oct 24, 2014 at 8:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ @PeterTaylor Point taken. I had been assuming that users could easily undelete their posts but that's not the case. \$\endgroup\$
    – Calvin's Hobbies
    Commented Oct 24, 2014 at 19:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't think any abandoned posts should be deleted without warning. \$\endgroup\$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Commented Oct 26, 2014 at 16:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'd like to see a comment posted to inform the OP that the post will be deleted if no edit/comment is made within (for example) 30 days. \$\endgroup\$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Commented Oct 26, 2014 at 16:19
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'd also like to see abandoned posts that are due for deletion added to a list in the sandbox meta question, so that anyone who wants to claim one can add a comment to the post to indicate it has a new owner. If no new owner volunteers within (for example) 30 days, delete the abandoned post and remove it from the list of links in the sandbox question. \$\endgroup\$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Commented Oct 26, 2014 at 16:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ I was thinking this should be community wiki but then I realized there's no rep on meta. \$\endgroup\$
    – user344
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 11:43

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
36
\$\begingroup\$

5. Delete posted challenges, keep abandoned.

\$\endgroup\$
5
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ (Note: this one has my vote.) \$\endgroup\$
    – Doorknob
    Commented Oct 24, 2014 at 2:39
  • 8
    \$\begingroup\$ Yay, finally some support for this! :) I suggest that posts are still edited down to a link before deleting though, because deleted challenges are still clutter for high-rep users. \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin Ender
    Commented Oct 24, 2014 at 12:34
  • 11
    \$\begingroup\$ Also, there's "abandoned" as in "forgotten and abandoned" and there's "abandoned" as in "abandoned because the challenge turned out to be a duplicate/bad/not feasible". I'd suggest deleting the latter as well. \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin Ender
    Commented Oct 24, 2014 at 15:16
  • \$\begingroup\$ This seems to be the consensus, but it has only been a couple days. In a few more days I'll post (if no one else does) a follow up discussion on what what this option exactly entails and how we should execute it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Calvin's Hobbies
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 0:14
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ I agree with martin about "abandoned because the challenge turned out to be a duplicate/bad/not feasible". What about delete posted challenges and abandoned posts with a score of <0? \$\endgroup\$
    – DJMcMayhem
    Commented Oct 27, 2014 at 19:12
5
\$\begingroup\$

2. Delete as much as possible - including all posted challenges and anything clearly abandoned.

\$\endgroup\$
2
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ I'm all for this, if clearly abandoned means clearly abandoned (e.g., no activity for a year, or score of -3 or lower and no activity for 3 months). \$\endgroup\$
    – Dennis
    Commented Oct 25, 2014 at 1:45
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ "Sandbox" to me implies a temporary staging ground, with the operative word being "temporary". +1 to Dennis' proposal. \$\endgroup\$
    – COTO
    Commented Oct 26, 2014 at 17:40
5
\$\begingroup\$

3. Edit posted with consistent links, keep abandoned for potential future use.

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 7
    \$\begingroup\$ This should be a long-term project rather than a short high-intensity one, or everything recent will drop back a long way. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peter Taylor
    Commented Oct 24, 2014 at 8:42
4
\$\begingroup\$

1. Do nothing. This is not an issue.

\$\endgroup\$
-7
\$\begingroup\$

4. Edit posted with consistent links, delete abandoned.

\$\endgroup\$

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .