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A few hours ago, I posted a comment and an answer to a question (deleted questions are only visible for users with enough rep). Someone had found a nonstandard parameterization of the negative binomial distribution in some paper; I commented whether they could add a link to the paper and a few minutes later answered that the parameterization was nonsensical, because the PMF would be convex.

Now the question seems to have disappeared down the memory hole.

It's not among the questions on the main page. It's not among the "recently deleted" questions. I see neither my comment nor my answer in my profile.

That's not the first time something like this has happened to me. It's a bit frustrating to invest a couple of minutes on a post and then have it simply disappear. Can anyone (mods?) tell me what is going on?

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The question does appear in the list of recently deleted questions available to diamond mods, but the site has no record that you answered. (Interestingly, it does not show up in the public list of recently self-deleted posts at https://stats.stackexchange.com/tools?tab=Delete&daterange=last2days.)

Before you tried to submit your answer, either the original poster deleted their question or it was closed. This is unusual but it does happen regularly, especially with questions showing signs that they need improvement (as indicated by two earlier comments to the question in this case).

When you encounter this situation, if you think of immediately copying and pasting your answer to a safe place to preserve it, you can ask for moderator intervention to undelete the original post.

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    $\begingroup$ Hm. Thanks. I'm still confused. (1) I posted my answer six hours ago, the OP self-deleted four hours ago, and it was still open when I posted, so your second paragraph does not apply here. (2) I also see only one comment, mine, not the two you note. (3) I'd still like for a case like this to show up in my "recently deleted" list. Is there a way to submit a bug report to SE? As I write, this is not the first time this has happened to me. $\endgroup$
    – Stephan Kolassa
    Sep 30, 2022 at 15:48
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    $\begingroup$ Since you see only one comment, that suggests I might have identified a different thread than the one you were interacting with. I can see your answer in the thread @Scortchi found. I am surprised the system permitted the OP to delete the thread. I'll undelete it, but what you might want to do is investigate this on Meta.SO and, if you find no explanation, submit a bug report. (Strangely, the system permitted me to undelete your post without undeleting the question! I have never encountered an orphan answer like that.) $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Sep 30, 2022 at 15:52
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks, will do. Can you migrate this thread to Meta.SO? Or should I just open a new thread there? I just searched and did not find this particular behavior discussed there. $\endgroup$
    – Stephan Kolassa
    Sep 30, 2022 at 16:54

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