SO fiddle

Test Fiddle mainly for SO Questions

by Nick Craver

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.4/themes/overcast/jquery-ui.css">
<ul id="links_list" class="links_list">
  <li data-id="296" class="sidebar_link">text
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="297" class="sidebar_link">text2
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="296" class="sidebar_link">text
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="297" class="sidebar_link">text2
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="296" class="sidebar_link">text
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="297" class="sidebar_link">text2
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="296" class="sidebar_link">text
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="297" class="sidebar_link">text2
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="296" class="sidebar_link">text
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="297" class="sidebar_link">text2
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="296" class="sidebar_link">text
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="297" class="sidebar_link">text2
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="296" class="sidebar_link">text
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="297" class="sidebar_link">text2
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="296" class="sidebar_link">text
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="297" class="sidebar_link">text2
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="296" class="sidebar_link">text
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="297" class="sidebar_link">text2
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="296" class="sidebar_link">text
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
  <li data-id="297" class="sidebar_link">text2
    <a href="#">Delete Link</a>
  </li>
</ul>

JavaScript

$('#links_list li a').click(function(e) {
  var id = $(this).closest("li").attr("data-id");
  //do ajax stuff
  $(this).closest("li").fadeTo("fast", 0.01).slideUp("fast", function() {
    $(this).remove();
  });
  e.preventDefault(); //prevent page scrolling with # href
});