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I have posted a question a few months ago and I would like to get it deleted.

In the question I have posted my own opinion and views that I have used in an essay. I have been told that there have been some similarities found using the Turnitin service and I have tried to delete the question but I am unable to do so since a person already answered to it.

I have edited the post and removed my opinion and view that I have written and left the question with only a few words left. A moderator has edited my question and added all my text back and locked the question.

I was wondering how can I delete such question.

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  • I have posted a question a few months ago Where did you post your question? I don't see it on our site (Academia Stack Exchange).. – scaaahu Aug 2 '18 at 9:17
  • You should post your question on Philosophy Meta, not here. – scaaahu Aug 2 '18 at 9:22
  • @scaaahu: well, as it turns out the answer is actually 50% on-topic, even if the question isn't really. I suspect the philosophy peeps meant "go ask over at academia how to deal with the situation given that you can't delete" – nengel Aug 2 '18 at 9:24
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    @nengel I think the OP is talking about this question on Philosophy SE. As far as I can see, no one there told the OP to come over here. I have no idea what the OP is talking about. Already vote to close as "unclear what you're asking" because we have nothing to do with that question. – scaaahu Aug 2 '18 at 9:30
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    @scaaahu the OP originally posted this post on MSE and was looking for a way to disprove an accusation of plagiarization, thus I suggested to look over for self-plagiarizing tag to read further about OP's case. [...] – Andrew T. Aug 3 '18 at 11:17
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    (cnt'd) unfortunately, the message was probably unclear (sorry, my fault) and instead of posing that question (how to disprove an accusation of plagiarization), the OP seems to ask this question instead (how to delete a post on SE)... – Andrew T. Aug 3 '18 at 11:19
  • @AndrewT. Yes, I understand. I am hoping nengel's answer and my answer below would address the OP's concern. (It did take me a long while to figure out what the OP wanted). – scaaahu Aug 3 '18 at 11:20
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You can't delete the question, but doing so also won't solve your problem anyway.

When you post a question on stackexchange, you agree in the terms and conditions that you don't have the right to delete the question. (You may only remove your name from it.) The question may be deleted by moderators, administrators, or the anti-spam bot if it is considered not to have any value, but questions with value can't just be removed by the user. People have taken the time to answer your question, so you shouldn't be able to make all their hard work worthless in a fit of pique (there have been problems with users deleting all their questions when ragequitting, and then the answers don't make sense any more). A moderator may make an exception for you based on the circumstances. See also: How does deleting work? What can cause a post to be deleted, and what does that actually mean? What are the criteria for deletion?, under "When can't I delete my own post?"

Turnitin regularly scrapes content from various websites, including stackexchange. Now that turnitin knows about this text, it is in its database and won't be removed from there just because you delete the question on the site.

However, everyone knows that turnitin sometimes finds duplicate passages that are not instances of plagiarism. For instance, generally all references are highlighted, because other people have cited the same paper before. Another case is, as here, publication of the same text by the same author in another location.

Therefore, the solution is simply for you to add a note when you hand in your essay saying that you wrote this question.

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  • thank you very much for that answer. I am go ahead and add the note. – Hidaw Aug 2 '18 at 9:12
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    Note also that the usual situation "ask the moderator to remove my name from the question" would make things worse here, as it would look as though you had plagiarized from somebody else rather than yourself. – Flyto Aug 2 '18 at 9:15
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    Indeed! Make sure you keep access to your account so you can prove your authorship if necessary. – nengel Aug 2 '18 at 9:17
  • most definitely. – Hidaw Aug 2 '18 at 9:20
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It took me a while to figure out what you are trying to solve.

I think the solution is to cite the question on Philosophy SE and the answer to that question to avoid the plagiarism issues.

Please refer to Attributing contributions to academic work that occur in Stack Exchange

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  • Thank you very much for all your help. I am apologize if my question was unclear. – Hidaw Aug 2 '18 at 12:05

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