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Recently, a major change was announced:

  • Deleted questions will be visible to their authors, regardless of those authors' reputation. They won't be linked to anywhere that they're not already linked, but if someone knows where to find their question and it's been deleted, they should always be able to view it.

All good and much desired. However looking now at one of my own deleted questions (on Movies site) I found couple of problems:

  1. Even though the "edit" link is disabled with "Post is deleted" title which is correct, the "retag" link is still active:

    More then that: I was able to retag successfully but then it leads to the next issue...

  2. I can't see the revisions of the deleted question, getting the generic Page Not Found error. It was already reported and fixed for own deleted answers, but probably questions are somewhat different behind the scenes so that fix didn't apply for the recent change.
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    Shouldn't the owner be able to edit their deleted content? I can edit other people's deleted content and flag it for undeletion, so I don't see why the owner of the post couldn't either.
    – Rachel
    Commented May 2, 2013 at 11:56
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    "Roomba turbocharging" LOL
    – MarioDS
    Commented May 2, 2013 at 11:57
  • @Rachel assumed it's part of the restrictions but maybe you're right.. not sure about that.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented May 2, 2013 at 11:57
  • 10K+ users can see deleted questions and it's revisions. So it should be visible for OP.
    – Himanshu
    Commented May 2, 2013 at 11:59
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    @MarioDeSchaepmeester I took it as a reference to this post: meta.stackexchange.com/q/173513/174374 :-)
    – Monolo
    Commented May 2, 2013 at 12:25
  • @Monolo indeed, I link to that post in the first sentence of my question. :)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented May 2, 2013 at 12:26
  • @ShaWizDowArd didn't care to click since you summarised the announcement in 3 lines. It remains funny though.
    – MarioDS
    Commented May 2, 2013 at 12:28
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    We're apparently a bunch of lazy non-clickers, here. :-)
    – Monolo
    Commented May 2, 2013 at 12:36
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    Yeah, I think editing should be enabled. That way it's consistent with deleted answers as well, which the author can edit and flag for moderator attention if needed.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented May 7, 2013 at 22:13
  • @Anna while you're are it, in case the team will work on this please remind them of ancient bug that allows users with 2K rep (or even 500, not sure) to see deleted posts by directly going to their edit link. I'm pretty sure the devs (especially Nick and Mark) are aware of that so this will be a great opportunity to kill two bugs at once. :)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented May 8, 2013 at 7:53
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    The reason we decided to keep the edit link disabled was that if we allowed edits on the deleted question (for low rep users), this could mean that a nefarious edit could be made (spam, defacement, whatever). If then the person waited before un-deleting, the post wouldn't be bumped to front page and could remain hidden for quite a while. @Anna and Sha - this is not written in stone, but that's what Shog and I agreed on when the change was made. Thoughts?
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented May 8, 2013 at 10:02
  • As for "retag" - not really a problem anymore, as it is dead.
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented May 8, 2013 at 10:20
  • @Oded but deleted questions aren't indexed anymore (unless the bot will impersonate 10K user) so can't see any harm is spam hidden for all eternity. IMO the gain would be more than the loss.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented May 8, 2013 at 10:39
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    @Oded Oh, you mean when the question was deleted by its owner, then he can undelete instantly.. in that case, maybe we should disable that option for low rep users? If they want to delete for genuine reasons they can flag or post comment "please delete".
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented May 8, 2013 at 10:45
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    Ah. Should have defaulted to a 6-8 weeks answer then.
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented May 8, 2013 at 11:49

1 Answer 1

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The issue with retag being different from edit is moot, as retag is gone.

With edit, it is now enabled on deleted questions, unless they are self deletes, as this can open a window to abuse (self delete, edit and later undelete immediately).

You can now also see revisions on your own deleted question, just like it is already possible with answers.

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    May be a new status: status-feature-gone ???
    – Himanshu
    Commented May 9, 2013 at 12:32
  • Awesomeness in its best! Just noticed one minor glitch, still thinking if it's worth reporting.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented May 9, 2013 at 12:36
  • @ShaWizDowArd - If you don't someone else will. Might as well get it from someone who knows how to report such things ;)
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented May 9, 2013 at 12:54
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    Done. :-)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented May 9, 2013 at 13:30
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    Where is the abuse in editing a self-deleted question?
    – sth
    Commented Jan 16, 2015 at 22:56
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    @sth - write a question, delete, edit into spam the next day, undelete. Doesn't show up on the front page or most other lists, thus evades detection.
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented Jan 17, 2015 at 7:27
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    @Oded Then isn't that what should be fixed? A self-deleted question that is undeleted should be treated as a new question.
    – SQB
    Commented May 19, 2016 at 9:34
  • @SQB - but it isn't a new question. And if undeleted, any answers on it (that have not been specifically deleted themselves) will also come up. It isn't as simple as treating them as new questions (ignoring technical issues).
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented May 19, 2016 at 9:38
  • @Oded Ah, I see. My use case was this question about how to fix a question accidentally posted before done writing (not my question). A good option that is not available due to this restriction, would be to delete, edit, and undelete, to prevent unwarranted down votes due to the incomplete question.
    – SQB
    Commented May 19, 2016 at 9:56
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    @SQB - that can be unfortunate. But... a quick edit to the top explaining this is a mistakenly partially submitted question and that one is working on fixing it can help :)
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented May 19, 2016 at 10:02
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    @Oded This seems like pretty strange behavior, why doesn't undeleting a question just bump the question? It seems like this makes life harder for a bunch of legitimate uses (it might be wise to improve a deleted question in an attempt to salvage it) because of a limitation of the system.
    – hichris123
    Commented May 22, 2016 at 17:26

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