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I just noticed that I (as everyone else) can flag my own questions. There are fewer options (no "spam" nor "rude or abusive") to choose, but it's still possible to flag your own question as "should be closed" or "duplicate".

I don't understand, if that is the case, shouldn't I just delete the question? What's the purpose of having this options?

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    I don't know on how many meta sites you posted this question (here, Unix & Linux SE, Superuser SE) but please check Why can I flag my own question/answer? and Flag and close my own question, both on Meta SE.
    – Tsundoku
    Nov 22, 2018 at 19:28
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    What if you found the duplicate yourself after posting? Flagging it as such is much better than just deleting in a case like that, others may benefit from your question.
    – dessert
    Nov 22, 2018 at 19:36
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    And if I may throw in another one for marking as duplicate: self-documenting. You delete your question, and maybe 2 or 3 years down the road forget entirely how you solved this exactly same issue, perhaps via obscure unintuitive script-foo. But if you mark your own question as duplicate, the answer is just a link away instead of trying to search online via obscure keywords that lead to entirely unrelated posts. True story, I had couple of my own questions which I marked as duplicate then came back looking for them.
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Dec 1, 2018 at 4:27
  • I flag my own all the time even if I know that something cannot be fixed on AU. askubuntu.com/q/1032847/231142 Sometimes I feel it is best to leave info for someone else that may help them in the long run.
    – Terrance
    Dec 3, 2018 at 4:26

2 Answers 2

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Because flagging is better than deleting most of the time¹...

  • A duplicate is a placeholder for the next person googling an answer.
  • An off-topic question points to StackOverflow, Unix & Linux, ...
  • A flag for Moderator attention can still get the attention of a mod that you're being bullied not being treated like you should, ...
  • ...

Note¹: The notable exception being off-topic questions: they should be burninated! ;-)

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    For a lot of questions, deletion is better. In particular, we don't want off-topic questions here!
    – Zanna Mod
    Dec 1, 2018 at 10:24
  • @Zanna like Kali! :D Edited!!! Thanks for the reminder! :-)
    – Fabby
    Dec 1, 2018 at 14:04
  • @Fabby: I believe that you missed the point of Zanna's comment. Your answer still says "flagging is better than deleting most of the time (The notable exception being off-topic questions: they should be burninated! ;-)".  It should say "deletion is better than flagging most of the time (The notable exception being duplicates; they should be flagged)."  If you realize that you asked a question that was unclear, too broad, POB, or based on a really dumb typo, then you should try to delete it (unless you can fix it). Also, you weren't clear that OT questions should be flagged for migration.
    – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'
    Dec 5, 2018 at 18:02
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For example, in case you want delete your own question, but question already has an answer and that answer is accepted or upvoted. Then you might not be able to do that. So you need to flag the question for moderator attention to request deletion.

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