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Some keep deleting questions with a lot of discussion, both relevant and/or historical, and we can't search on deleted questions. Some of them are locked so that they cannot be undeleted, so I'm putting this question out, for links to be posted, so that those 10ks who want to find them in the future can. I think topical will be the best way to organize it.

What is a Community without History?

See also https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/73455/popular-deleted-questions-list for deleted questions on other sites (for 10k users)

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  • 3
    Do deleted posts show up in the data dump? This seems like a spectacularly bad way to solve this problem Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 16:50
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    @Michael: no, they don't. Not unless they managed to not be deleted when the data was dumped. Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 16:51
  • @Michael, there's always the possibility a question was asked late in a month and not deleted until the beginning of the next month.... Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 18:27
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    Now I want to read all these, and I can't :( Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 21:52
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    @Michael, that's called motivation. You should save the link to this question in case they delete it. Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 22:23
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    Yet another spark to feed the flame war... Commented Aug 17, 2010 at 16:44
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    @Ivo, I don't really want flame wars, I just want to keep aware of context and history, this would all be meaningless if they would just implement 'isdeleted' for 10ks. Commented Aug 17, 2010 at 17:05
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    @devinb is no fun (see edits). Commented Aug 18, 2010 at 15:56
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    What would happen if I deleted the 'Deleted Questions Archive'? Commented Mar 28, 2011 at 22:15
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    @Ivo, that would truly suck, at a black hole level. Commented Mar 28, 2011 at 23:14
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    @Ivo To our luck, we already have it in the Archives for when that happens Commented Apr 13, 2011 at 18:58
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    For users under 10k, I've written a user script that will allow you to see view many of these questions, though not their answers. Read more or install it from Stack Apps. Commented Aug 30, 2011 at 6:38
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    @Shog9 so they won't show up in data dump? Huh?! Why?! (what good is an incomplete dump?!) Commented Jun 30, 2012 at 18:28
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    @Lix The linked question was what prompted the rename. I believe that all the questions linked directly in this question are on meta, while the ones in the (newly renamed) Popular Deleted SO/SU/Programmers Questions list are linking to non-meta sites. Having "Deleted Questions Archive" and "Popular Deleted Questions List" without further disambiguation seemed wrong. Commented Oct 8, 2012 at 21:51
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    Surely the existance of this archive suggests there is demand to be able to search on deleted questions Commented Oct 7, 2013 at 18:17

13 Answers 13

Reset to default
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BUGS to be swept under the rug

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    FWIW, I love it that the first question involves the envelope not working properly, and the last involves it being removed... Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 17:48
  • @Shog, I hope people don't go up in arms about the 'EEk' question being deleted. It was asked at a time when the functionality of the new feature was not 100% there and doesn't represent things as they are now. Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 17:55
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    @jinguy, There's no really good excuse to them deleting discussion questions like that. The discussion will always be valid, even if things change. Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 17:57
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    @Lance, that question can be confusing. If someone ends up finding it, it contains lots of mis-information now. Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 18:03
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    @jjnguy: there is still no link to users/recent, therefore the Eeeek bug report is still accurate. The only confusing thing here is why the powers-that-be think deleting massively-upvoted questions is ever a good idea. Closed, yes. Locked, if you must. But deleted = let's pretend this never happened = way more harm than any question could ever hope to wreak. Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 18:22
  • @Marti, that bug report does still have some valid information. I agree. However, it is filled with people complaining that they are missing features that are actually there now. Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 18:32
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    @jjn: Is that not precisely what the "Too Localized" close reason is for? Why delete it? Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 20:29
  • @Aarobot, because Jeff felt it would do more harm than good by being around I guess. I can't claim to know why he deleted it for sure. I just don't think it's a bad thing. Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 20:44
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    @jin, realize that one of the consequences of deleting it, like a lot of deletions, is that now anyone else looking for an answer has a greater chance of creating a duplicate. One of the reasons that we try not to delete much. Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 20:48
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    @Lance: Not to mention that a bunch of other questions already closed as duplicates are now going to be linking to a 404 for the majority of users. Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 21:02
  • @Shog9: Of course, would the original complaint about the envelope not working be still accessible, it would be a good place to point all those to who now complain about it being missing. (Note that I'm not saying that would invalidate the latter, but that it would be a valid and helpful tool in discussing things.) Commented Mar 16, 2011 at 9:55
  • @sbi: did you try clicking on it? It was undeleted a few months ago... Commented Mar 16, 2011 at 15:29
  • @Shog9: No, I hadn't tried, thanks for pointing it out. But it doesn't change my argument: deleting discussions deletes helpful tools in discussions. And I was discussion deletion, not the envelop icon. Commented Mar 16, 2011 at 19:10
  • @sbi: I agree, just pointing out the current status of that post. Commented Mar 16, 2011 at 20:49
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    @jin, one of the problems with them deleting the Eeeek question is that now people can't get the GM script that gave them back the envelope. I'm fortunate that I'm over 10k here, and posted this link, so that I could get it today when I was on a new machine. It really has so much more functionality than the dropdown. Commented Mar 18, 2011 at 17:16
19

Discussing Deleted Posts

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    The first rule of deleted questions... ;) Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 16:55
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    (-1) for recursion (see my next comment) Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 17:03
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    (-1) for recursion (see my previous comment) Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 17:04
  • +1 for not actually making those numbers mean anything... Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 17:04
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    Wait, are you suggesting that this question will be deleted? Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 17:20
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    @Maxim, it seems inevitable. Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 17:45
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    @devinb That's not recursion, that's an infinite loop. See this comment for actual recursion. :P Commented Oct 7, 2011 at 4:57
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    Someone voted up the second comment, but not the third, so I had to do the opposite. See here for reference: youtu.be/ussCHoQttyQ Commented Oct 23, 2017 at 11:57
14

Banning/Suspension

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    Really? That was deleted? Why? Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 17:12
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    @Kop - it stayed quiet for a couple of days, and then a new participant showed up and it got a little ugly. I suspect some private emails went back and forth before Jeff deleted it. Commented Aug 17, 2010 at 16:48
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    @Kop: It's not only deleted, but locked as well. Commented Aug 17, 2010 at 16:58
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Humor

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Undesirable Behaviour/Users

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    More like threads where Jeff screwed up and deleted it to hide the truth, am I right? Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 19:42
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    I'm dying to see the contents of "SO will never be the source of the information and enlightening." It looks like a treasure trove of abject whining and broken English. Commented Sep 13, 2010 at 16:09
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Feature Requests

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    I Protest! Eeeek is and always has been a bug report. Hmph. (Sniff. I miss my Eeeek.) Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 17:30
  • @Marti, I agree with you, just forgot about that. I'll move it. Commented Mar 15, 2011 at 17:36
  • @LanceRoberts They just deleted the feature request about seeing deleted content? That's probably my fault, I left a comment on Jeff's answer there yesterday (I believe). Do you know if there is a canonical answer out there in re: seeing our own deleted posts? Commented Oct 7, 2011 at 4:29
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    @agf, yep, one of Jeff's most downvoted answers, another related good link is here. Commented Oct 7, 2011 at 4:35
  • @LanceRoberts Thanks, I guess I've seen that but forgot, I only had the just-deleted one favorited. Commented Oct 7, 2011 at 4:40
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Discussion

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  • Student link asked to be deleted by OP. Commented Oct 3, 2011 at 15:24
7

My God, It's Full of Unicorns!

(cross-posted from here):

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Discussing Closed Questions

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Stack Exchange/Stack Overflow miscellaneous questions:

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Users Departing Voluntarily

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  • the text of that was copied to his user profile. Commented Oct 23, 2010 at 10:31
  • ... hence here, I guess? Commented Dec 14, 2010 at 20:44
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Approaching Deletion

(This is for questions that have a lot of delete votes. It's hard to track them down after they're deleted. After they are deleted, they can be moved to other answers here.)

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Badge Requests

(So now we're deleting Badge Requests, this first one sucks but it's unique.)

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    yet again, OP asked for it to be deleted. Or, y'know, GLOBAL CONSPIRACY BY THE MAN. Commented Sep 12, 2011 at 8:05

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