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I was going through some Low-Quality Posts reviews, when I came across this post. I clicked "Delete", since not only is it wrong, but it does not really even attempt to answer (recommends something that the Op already mentioned). But I got a strange error message, of the orange popup variety, saying something like (paraphrase):

You cannot delete this post.

So I clicked "Looks Good" instead, and it went through successfully.

I've seen this error message only a couple of times (out of hundreds of reviews), and I'm curious. Is this an error message of some kind? Did I make a mistake? Was this a honeypot trap? Or am I simply not as cool as WATTO Studios and, as such, am not permitted to gainsay him?

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    Amazingly, the post was not negatively voted, which I believe is a criteria for you being able to delete it as a trusted user.
    – user50049
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 4:37
  • @Tim this is not so trivial, I think it's better be posted as answer for all to see and learn.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 8:07
  • No way are you "not as cool as WATTO Studios": the guy just goes and approves everything (I've run across him before), there's nothing "cool" about him. :)
    – Mac
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 8:16
  • @ShaWizDowArd I'm not 100% confident that I'm correct, or I would have posted it as an answer. There's also the matter of the delete button showing up, even though the post was not a candidate for trusted users to delete (if I am correct). IOW, I'm not sure what review is or is not supposed to be wrapping around the functionality people see when just viewing a question normally.
    – user50049
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 8:25
  • @Tim I'm pretty sure that 20K+ users can't delete answers unless they have negative score. As for delete appearing it might be a bug indeed.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 8:31
  • @ShaWizDowArd I went ahead and answered anyway, with a healthy disclaimer.
    – user50049
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 8:35
  • See also Is using this downvote/delete loophole exploitative? in which I point out that it is actually possible for a 20k user to delete zero-score answers...
    – AakashM
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 8:42
  • @AakashM I'd call that 'exploitable' if deletion happened with a single vote, but that could explain what happened.
    – user50049
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 8:56
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    I'd just like to point to 2 legitimate reasons for your comments guys, so you can be aware that not everyone is simply rubber-stamping. 1. Reviewing on a mobile device means that sometimes the wrong button is clicked accidentally - there is no 'undo' button, but thats why there are 3 reviews before anything is accepted. 2. Also due to mobile devices, it is easier to Approve legitimate posts and Skip incorrect ones, then it is to perform Edits, therefore I have a generally higher accept count compared to my rejects/edits. Please dont be so quick to lump everyone in the same basket!
    – wattostudios
    Commented Dec 5, 2012 at 1:46

1 Answer 1

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At the time you reviewed the answer, it had no negative votes. In fact, it had no score at all. In order for trusted users to be able to delete answers, those answers must have a negative score.

With that being said, I'm not sure why review presented you with an impossible option. My understanding is that it wraps the functionality you'd normally have when viewing a post conventionally, which (I don't think) would have presented you with that option.

Disclaimer: I can't be absolutely sure of this, as it's not possible for me to turn 'moderator mode' off in order to see what you see. And even if I could, I'm about 2500 rep shy of being able to test it.

Additionally, it's possible that the post was down voted, and that vote was reversed during the grace period (after the button had been presented to you, but prior to you pushing it).

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  • Well, you can always use your account on programmers to check such things. (although it's not 20K yet.. bummer)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 8:36
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    You may be on the right track with PSE though .. Where's that rep polyglot @ChrisF hiding? He should be able to reproduce this on at least 20% of the network.
    – user50049
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 8:41

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