If it was deleted, something went very wrong. I have no idea what. Maybe it was considered spam. Maybe they're a recurring troll who got banned. Maybe it accidentally revealed some personal information and they thought the better of it.

Whatever it was, it's more than just "I asked for help and then forgot about it". Which is rude, of course, but I'm afraid you have to expect that on teh intarwebz. Everything is asynchronous. It feels like a conversation, but it's not. People are doing a million things at once and they often just don't return to things.

There's a very good chance that somebody involved is a jerk, and indeed, the world would be a much better place if we all tried to think out the effects of our actions on others. But I'm afraid you're going to have to assume that not everybody will.

> If you ask a question and someone answers, say thank you.

Given that a disproportionate number of accounts on this site are rate-limited in their comments, this might be a big ask. Maybe I'm the crazy one, but thankfulness should be implied through polite decorum and not asking someone to spend a comment that could be used to clarify or solve a problem on genuflecting a really nice gesture to someone sipping a coffee at their cubicle.

I could’ve sworn that one of the guidelines said don’t reply to comments just to say “thank you” since that doesn’t contribute to the conversation. Maybe that’s on a different website because I just reread all the guidelines and it’s not there. But anyway, I interpret an upvote as a thank you. It can be nice for others if the person acknowledges your comment/suggestion helped them