When is it OK to vote to undelete posts that were deleted by their owners?

Question

Sometimes, I encounter genuinely interesting questions that get deleted, either because the OP figured it out right after posting, or because it was receiving downvotes and close votes for any number of (valid) reasons, and answers that get deleted out of doubt or to be reposted as comments but turn out to be the correct answers.

In the case of questions, while they may have been downvoted and closed for perfectly valid reasons, I believe I can improve them to be on-topic or otherwise acceptable. Except in this case, the questions were deleted by the owner by choice.

Since it takes more than one community vote to undelete posts anyway, can a user with the right privileges cast undelete votes for those reasons? Specifically for deleted answers, is there anything else one can do like somehow asking the author to undelete their answer because it turns out to be correct? (I did it once for this answer by posting a comment under my question, but only because there was a good chance this particular author would be refreshing it anyway.)

Answer 1

If a user is ragequitting and deleting all of their old posts, that might be a reason (although you should probably flag as well to let a mod know).

Otherwise, it's probably best to ask politely to undelete.

Answer 2

Personally, the only time I delete something from a Stack Exchange site is when I asked myself, does this make the Internet better? and concluded no. Things like:

• read the OP's question wrong, leading to a silly (or plain "off-topic") answer
• was mistaken, misinformed, or just up too late, leading to a technically incorrect answer
• someone else posted an answer that covered everything my short answer did, but covered it far better, and expanded upon it. My answer is now just redundant.
• question was a silly mistake and is unlikely to be of any use to anyone else (e.g., left out a semicolon) (should be closed as "too localized", if not deleted)
• asked question on the wrong site, noticed before any answers (delete and post on correct site)

In every case, if the community disagrees with my assessment of value, my question or answer should be undeleted. When I posted it, I gave a license under CC-BY-SA, which is non-revocable, so legally its OK to undelete it. When I posted it, I published it. Not only did I publish it, I published it in a venue where I know that others may edit, answer, review, comment on, etc. it; I have given up control over it. Morally, I have no qualms.

The name Creative Commons is not a mistake. My published content is now part of the commons, and the community may (within the terms of CC-BY-SA) do with it as it pleases.

I feel this should be the normal, everyday handling of deleted questions. There are a few things, a very small minority, which need special handling such as when Stack Exchange receives DMCA notice, court order, or a notice under CC-BY §4(a). But those are exceptions. We have diamond mods and Stack Exchange employees to handle exceptions. The general policy should not be based on exceptions.

[Actually, if there were an easy way to give a CC-BY §4(a) notice, that is, request something no longer be attributed to you, I think that'd handle a lot of the objections to community undeletes.]

Answer 3

Questions are different from answers.

If an author deletes their own answer, the most you should do is ask them politely to undelete or flag it for a moderator and let the moderator ask the author whether they'd be willing to undelete. If the author declines the request and prefers that it remain deleted, you should leave things be (you should not forcibly undelete their answer). You can flag it for moderator attention. However, in my view, moderators should be very reluctant to forcibly override an author's deletion of their own answer, if the author objects. Overriding the author's wishes to have their own answer deleted is an extreme act, and one that should only be done in correspondingly extreme circumstances.

(Allowing people to delete their own answer is a safeguard that helps make it "safe" to post answers. It may not be the first thing people think of, but it is one more safeguard: if you later regret posting your answer, as a last fallback you can always delete it and know that it won't come back. We want people to be comfortable posting answers and to feel a sense of ownership and responsibility in their own work. Giving people this kind of ownership over their own answers is good for the community in the long run.)

Questions raise a different set of issues, because deleting a question also deletes all associated answers, even though the answers may come from others. If an author deletes their own question, and you think this is inappropriate, it is best to flag this for a moderator's attention. The moderator might choose to undelete the question, or to leave it as is, depending upon community norms. Moderators have tools to handle this case, like sending the author a super-ping to chat with them.

These are just my views; others may or may not agree.

See also: Allow 25k+ community moderators to undelete self-deleted questions.