Allow 20k users to see deleted posts from other users profiles (particularly for post banned users)

Question

Background

Anyone who has spent any time on meta will have experienced a user who has been question or answer banned and is looking for help. Often letting them know how to improve is what they need to move forward, improve their existing posts and get unbanned. Usually what I like to do is review each downvoted post individually and give specific advice on each post.

However; deleted questions are a major part of the question ban algorithm and so the post usually goes as follows:

Banned-user: Unfortunately I've been post banned, but I can't work out why.
High rep user: Your profile looks ok, do you have any deleted posts.
Banned-user: No, I don't have any deleted posts.
High rep user: [Awkward trying not to accuse the user of lying sentence in which we say they must] + instructions on how to access deleted posts.
Banned-user: I still can't see any deleted posts.
High rep user: They must be old, only recently posted deleted posts can be seen. We'll have to wait for a mod.
[Several hours pass, hopefully a mod turns up]
Mod: yes, you have deleted posts: link, link, link + advice on how to improve.

A perfect example of which happened just a few minutes ago: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/222617/i-am-a-serious-programmer-and-i-may-not-ask-questions-on-stack-overflow

The mod's involvement is hoped for as there is obviously no flag used for this. While a mod usually does stop by there is no guarantee. All this takes longer than necessary and shift too much responsibility onto mods.

Feature Request

Allow very high rep users (10k+ or 20k+) to view deleted posts from the profile, this would cut out the need for mod involvement completely as users could be given links to their posts and if improved high rep users could vote to undelete.

This would allow high rep users to give specific advice on specific posts in addition to the general advice they are already given automatically.

This would be in the same way users access their own deleted questions; through a "deleted questions" link at the bottom of the questions page so deleted posts would not be "in your face". Optionally this link could only be available for post banned users further increasing privacy except when you really need people to see your deleted posts¹.

¹ Although only showing the link for post banned users might actually inadvertently mark out post banned users which may not be desirable.

Answer 1

Here is my counter argument for this.

• If a user deleted a post, it usually means they are ashamed of it. Deleted content is often considered private information by the person who deleted it. It often contains posts users explicitly don't want others to see.
• This feature requests will allow shaming of users by high rep users. Any high rep user.
• The reason mods get to access this information is because we trust them and we elected them as a community.

Imagine somewhat problematic users that like power given this power. They can now shame low rep users and mock them. Giving users access to anything that relates to a specific user and not content requires trusting that user. I wouldn't trust most 10K or 20K rep users with mod tasks or this information.

So what do I do when I see a meta post with a user complaining about a Q ban?

Move along. A mod will come and reply. If anything - close as duplicate. This sucks, but the only alternative I see is something like a meta tag called mod-support that would be hidden by default from most users to reduce the clutter.

Answer 2

I don't personally see a need for this; 10k users aren't supposed to be able to target individuals.

I've always drawn a distinction between high-rep users and moderators: High rep users deal with problem content, moderators deal with problem users.

Being able to see a users history of deleted posts would encourage 10k users to start acting against a user because of their history, instead of dealing with a given post exclusively on its own merits.

Yes, it's nice when we can provide feedback to a specific user, and yes being able to see all of a users deleted posts would be nice, but the potential for abuse is too great IMO.

Answer 3

It's customary and desirable on site metas for ordinary users to answer [support] questions as much as possible, to free up diamond mod time. This even applies to individual cases that aren't generalizable, such as a given user asking how to fix their specific questions; these might be handled well in chat, but in any case, allowing users to take care of this where possible is helpful.

But the privacy concerns are potentially significant, even for high-rep users. So I suggest 20k "Trusted" users be given a link to a user's deleted posts that only shows any posts if the user is question/answer-banned. (Or, perhaps, close enough to be shown a warning.) This way, there's no immediate way to tell whether a user is post-banned unless the 20k user is already aware of deleted posts by that user that are not shown.

In the specific case of a post-banned user looking for help getting out, if they're not helped by a 20k+ user, then a diamond mod will need to come in and link to their posts. Then even 10k users can follow the links and shame them as much as their indiscretion allows. So there is no new scope for shaming here at all.

Answer 4

I'd like to put forward my counter argument for this feature request:

10K users can get involved in deleting posts by other users. They can cast their votes and if enough of them agree, action will be taken on the offending post. This is why 10K users are able to see deleted content if they are already viewing the selected post.

10K users can be involved in this process because they are trusted to have an acceptable grasp on what content is allowed on the site. Reputation is a rough estimate of how much the community trusts a user.

This is not the same for banning. 10K users have absolutely zero input when it comes to banning users (other than flagging to draw the attention of a mod). Only diamond mods and SE staff are able to enforce a user ban (and yes, SE staff wrote the auto-ban script so they are enforcing it).

Even when voting to delete content, the users involved are (or should be) concentrating only on the content. It doesn't matter if a >100K user is the OP - bad content will lead to delete votes.

Allowing anyone else other than diamond mods and SE staff to see deleted content per user would allow people to consider content in direct relation to the user that contributed that content - this is not the way voting of any sort should occur.