I was in the midst of answering a question when my answer was deleted. Why?

Question

I was working on this answer. The only sin I can imagine that I was committing was saving too frequently the work in progress in case I am dragged away from my desk by a more serious fire that needs putting out, unable to return until who knows when. I was literally in between updates when it was deleted out from under me.

Michael Hampton please advise. You left no comment and there is no commenting on deleted posts.

Also somebody please undelete this answer if you want the results of my investigation.

Answer 1

As has been stated, when you post your answer it's an answer. You may have been posting bits and pieces, intending each piece to be but one part of the whole, but we have no idea of your intentions. We're not mind readers after all. When we see an answer we think "Here's an answer." We don't think "I wonder if this is an answer or only a part of some larger tome that the author of this answer is intending to post. Maybe we should wait awhile and see if he/she posts anything more."

Perhaps we should have two buttons for the Answer box; one that reads Post Your Answer... Maybe... Sort Of and another that reads Post Your Answer For Real, No Take Backs. - If you think I'm being a bit facetious and sarcastic then you're right, because your entire premise is ridiculous.

Update based on your subsequent comments:

Looking at my history would tell you that I'm not somebody that submits crap content and that even if I'm technically violating the rules my intentions are good

But then you're asking a lot of this community and the moderators, aren't you? You're asking us to "consider" your past contributions and answer quality every time you (or anyone else) posts an answer before we decide to up vote, down vote, ignore, vote to close or delete it?

I was also trying to telegraph my intent with this statement in my answer

So you're suggesting that we hold off on taking action on an answer for some undetermined period of time to determine if you're really done answering the question when you post an answer or if your answer is being "actively edited"... as if we would have some way of deducing that.

Again, this entire premise is ridiculous.

You may very well be someone who has made positive contributions to this community and that's great, but you're asking this community to make special considerations for you when the simple solution is to simply not post your answer until it's complete. I'm failing to understand why that's so apparently difficult to grasp.

Answer 2

I deleted the "answer" because it was not an answer, but simply a "me too" restatement of the question.

You should not post answers which don't actually answer the question, as these will be flagged by the community and then deleted by a moderator.

I don't know what you mean by "saving too frequently". The system auto-saves your draft post for you. If you are in the middle of writing an answer, you shouldn't hit the button until it's finished.