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I recently posted an answer here in the parenting forums on a really touchy subject. There were already a couple answers before I posted, but they were superficial and I felt did not answer what the OP really wanted to know, so I inferred what I felt the OP wanted to know (which turned out to be correct) and submitted.

Throughout the day my post collected down-votes (and a couple up-votes)--which is OK, I suppose I expected that, but I felt the the info was still worth getting out to the OP. Towards the end of the day the OP accepted my answer, which was currently at -2, despite the other answers that collected 8+ up-votes and such.

I see this morning that the answer had collected even more down-votes, and that it was grey (I am not sure what that means, but guessing flagged for deletion?). I really feel that my answer helped ease the OP as they did accept, and would be really good for other people to see who have a similar question with the same inferences that I made. I do not want my post to be deleted just because of a...very passionate side on a very touchy subject. Is there anything to be done?

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    As @Becuzz stated, I don't think there's much chance it will be deleted. The community can't delete an accepted answer (nor, I believe, can you, even though it's your own answer), and it's highly unlikely that a mod would, as it's not offensive, very low quality, or other. It will be grey only as long as it maintains a net -3 score (right now that's not the case.) Your answer was helpful to the OP; I think you are right to take comfort in that.
    – anongoodnurse
    May 4, 2016 at 18:17
  • There were no flags on that answer at any point.
    – Acire
    May 8, 2016 at 20:10

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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An accepted answer can only be deleted by the moderators (which will not happen unless the answer is flagged by users and the moderators agree with the flag).

The answer OP (yourself in this case) can delete it if it has not been accepted (regardless of votes).

That it is grey is a reflection of the score being very negative (score is the number of upvotes subtracted by the number of downvotes) - it is meant to de-emphasize the post, to show the community does not agree with it.

Is there anything to be done?

I hope the above shows you that there is nothing to be concerned with and therefore nothing to be done.

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  • It does. I assume that means the post shows up grey to others as well. I also assume that if the moderators are also very passionately on one side, then I am SOL. Also, thank you for migrating to the appropriate forum.
    – Jeff.Clark
    May 4, 2016 at 16:00
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    @Jeff.Clark You are correct that if the post shows up gray for you it will for others too. However, I wouldn't worry about it getting deleted by a mod. They typically don't delete things unless has no value at all or is causing problems (being rude, offensive, etc.). Since it has some upvotes and was accepted by the OP, it has some value to some people, even if others don't agree. If in the bizarre case it gets deleted, bring it up on meta again and someone can either explain why or get it fixed.
    – Becuzz
    May 4, 2016 at 17:46
  • Fantastic, thank you!
    – Jeff.Clark
    May 4, 2016 at 18:19

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