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https://serverfault.com/questions/649171/damage-control-stolen-laptop

This question was downvoted and closed, but I would like to know: How is it significant?

4 Answers 4

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It has a historical lock because a former moderator placed the lock there. I don't know why he did it. I can't even begin to speculate. But removing the lock would change little: The question is terrible and the user isn't going to fix it.

There's probably still room for a good question along these lines, but this wasn't it. No longer seen in this post are several deleted comments where the poster explicitly stated it was a "test" question and people reacted quite negatively to that. Then he claimed it was based on a real situation, but refused to clarify it so that he could get a proper answer.

I'm pretty sure we'd lose just about nothing if the question were deleted. If anyone else has seen it since the week it was posted, I'd be surprised.

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    Delete away, for my money. I note that locked questions can't be delete-voted, either; if you don't want to delete it you might consider removing the lock so the community can express itself in the normal way.
    – MadHatter
    Oct 10, 2016 at 9:33
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    IIRC mod edits to locked questions don't get bumped to the front page. A historical lock is easy to apply. I suspect that this would have all been cleaned up except that the events that cause the mod to be come ex interrupted the activity.I'm with @madhatter and would cast s delete vote if I were able.
    – user9517
    Oct 10, 2016 at 10:46
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    Yet another reason we should all be grateful to The Powers That Be for unilaterally nuking an elected mod.
    – MadHatter
    Oct 10, 2016 at 10:50
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    I've removed the lock so the community can express itself in the normal way. Oct 11, 2016 at 5:26
  • @MichaelHampton now it's deleted, but I wonder if Chris loose some points as is answer was good (with a +4), as usually the OP can't delete is own question if an usefull answer was gave.
    – yagmoth555 Mod
    Oct 12, 2016 at 13:46
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    @yagmoth555 After a post gets old enough, the reputation doesn't go away if the post is deleted. I don't recall the exact time offhand though. Oct 12, 2016 at 15:09
  • @MichaelHampton ah, thanks for the input :) didnt knew that
    – yagmoth555 Mod
    Oct 12, 2016 at 15:33
  • @MichaelHampton Do you happen to have a source for that information? I thought it was based on the impact of removal, not on the age of the question/answer.
    – Mast
    Oct 15, 2016 at 19:12
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    @Mast meta.stackexchange.com/a/5222/157730 "Reputation changes from bounties, votes (both up and down), and acceptances on deleted posts (including answers to a deleted question) are nullified. (Exception: Reputation earned for posts with a score of three or higher, and where the post has been visible on the site for at least 60 days, is retained)."
    – user
    Nov 17, 2016 at 16:40
  • @MichaelKjörling Much appreciated :-)
    – Mast
    Nov 17, 2016 at 17:41
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A few things stand out. First, the ex-mod that locked it, and the ex-mod that answered it. Part of the reason that the ex-mod who locked it is an ex-mod is due to actions like this. If you look hard enough, you'll find hundreds of similar historical-locks that don't quite make sense.

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As suggested in comments, it was locked to prevent it from being bumped to the front page ("active" questions view) when I retagged it. At least as of when I last had diamond privs, unlocking a question was one of the actions that bumped a question to the front page, so it stayed locked.

No sense in stirring that turd back to the top that I could see, but perhaps the current mods will feel differently.

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    It doesn't matter. At -4 or below it would not appear on the front page no matter how many changes are made to it. Oct 11, 2016 at 5:25
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The question is not very valuable in its current state. There is however one reason I won't vote to delete it. Deleting the question would also delete the answer.

The answer which was given to that question is a good answer. And that answer would also be applicable to more realistic questions that might come up. So there is a possibility that somebody may search for an answer and find that answer useful.

But it is not the question and answer I would consider to deserve the historical question notice. The scenarios where that notice would be most applicable is good questions with good answers which just happens to be off-topic according to our current standards.

The notice has since then been removed, and I think that is all that needed to be done about that question.

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