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Some badges, such as Deputy, Marshall, and Reviewer (and less directly) Strunk & White and Copy Editor, involve acting on posts that have a potential to be deleted as a result of the actions being taken (vote to close could lead to a post being closed with eventual deletion, flagging can result in closure/deletion/migration). Editing doesn't directly lead to this, but if a post needs to be edited there's a chance it is poor quality anyway and may end up being deleted (I'm not saying this is likely, just possible).

If a post is deleted, are any of these actions lost? I'm pretty sure flags stay (my flag history shows some flags where the post has been deleted), but what about edits? If an answer is edited, then the question is deleted (thereby deleting the answer), does the edit still count toward S&W/Copy Editor/Reviewer? Does a vote on it still count towards Civic Duty and Electorate?

Example:
Here on Meta, there have been a lot of questions lately that should be asked on StackOverflow (not here), being asked by anonymous users. This tend to attract downvotes, flags, and close votes, getting closed almost instantaneously and deleted within a few minutes (here is one example that has not yet been deleted).

Do votes and flags on these posts count towards these badges on meta? What about edits (if someone bothered to actually edit one of these before it got deleted)? I know the votes don't affect reputation once they're gone, but are they still counted towards badges?

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  • 2
    possible duplicate of How do "badges" work?
    – Cody Gray
    Mar 13, 2012 at 5:13
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    @CodyGray That question/answer does not cover this topic (if a post is deleted before badge is earned, do votes/edits still count?)
    – yoozer8
    Mar 13, 2012 at 15:03
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    It does indirectly: However, if the criteria for a badge no longer exist, e.g. the post it was awarded for is deleted, ...
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Mar 22, 2012 at 15:37
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    @Bobby That doesn't really address it - it seems to be more about badges that are awarded more than once. The issue here is that the actions that earn the badge are related to a post on its way to deletion (flags, not really a question since the count clearly includes deleted posts; and downvotes, which is not clear)
    – yoozer8
    Mar 23, 2012 at 3:28
  • Additionally, a question may be edited to improve it's readability/formatting and make it clearer, but if it's so poorly written that it can't be made a real question without adding content/changing meaning, it will likely be deleted. Will that edit count?
    – yoozer8
    Mar 23, 2012 at 3:38

2 Answers 2

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+50

Flags:

The nature of flagging often leads to flagged posts being deleted, and the system is designed to work this way. The flag count in the user profile counts all of the flags that have been marked 'helpful', and the flagging history shows all flags that have been raised by the user, including on delete posts (even if the user lacks the 10K required to see the post).

Answer: Yes, flags count.

Votes:

According to this answer (post-implementation response to a feature request),

votes on deleted posts will be included in the profile counts. This will also apply to the various voting badges to match: Civic Duty, Electorate, Suffrage, Vox Populi. Also, the badge progress on review should remain accurate.

(emphasis mine)

Answer: Yes, votes count.

Edits:

Edits on deleted posts don't appear to count. Verified by editing a post (edit count in /review went up) then editing a deleted post (edit count in review did NOT go up). Edits made to a post which goes to be deleted are no longer counted in your edit total, tested by editing a post (which counted) and then deleting the same post (which took the edit away).

Answer: No, edits don't count.

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  • 2
    Found your answer for edits and edited that in.
    – Ben Brocka
    May 28, 2012 at 22:13
  • Interesting. I hadn't thought of editing a deleted post. My focus had been on the effect of deleting an edited post, either by deleting the post directly or deleting the question the edited post answered (would it bring down the edit count in /review?).
    – yoozer8
    May 28, 2012 at 22:15
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    Verified; the edit count in /review goes down if you delete a post which you've edited before deletion. SCIENCE!
    – Ben Brocka
    May 28, 2012 at 22:25
  • @BenBrocka Your test didn't touch on whether reputation for a suggested edit was lost when the post was deleted, did it?
    – yoozer8
    Aug 20, 2012 at 16:02
  • @Jim I'm pretty sure it is, although this post doesn't say so.
    – Servy
    Aug 20, 2012 at 16:23
  • Nope, couldn't suggest an edit to test
    – Ben Brocka
    Aug 20, 2012 at 16:30
  • This behavior is discouraging. Why shall I spend my time on downvoted or low reputation user's question if there is big chance he will delete it?
    – Leos Literak
    Apr 6, 2014 at 19:47
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There certainly used to be some badges that were awarded even after the question had been deleted ;).

It also depends on how questions are "deleted" - if they are migrated away then a record certainly stays behind, and previous edits are visible on the question history but the edits aren't shown on the receiving site (the question is pulled over in its current state but without any history).

That said, looking at a user who edited a migrated question, I can't see a +2 rep gain for that question, nor can I see an edit for the migrated question in their activity so I can't really categorically state whether the edit is still counted or not.

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