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With the new deletion request system, users are given countdown text for a 24 hour period following their account deletion request to reconsider that request. This is a good feature.

This account is scheduled to be deleted in 19 hours. To cancel deletion, click here.

There are also requirements in place that users who meet certain thresholds (generally high-reputation users), must have their account reviewed by a CM before it will be removed. This is understandable. Unfortunately, because our CMs are busy people, this doesn't always occur within the 24 hours of the countdown. These users then get confused that their account should have been deleted but was not.

Please add a notice to the countdown text on their profile page for users who meet this limit.

I recommend:

Your account meets a threshold that requires manual review by a community manager before being deleted. This review may take longer than 24 hours but will be done as soon as possible.

Optional, "Thank you for your patience." or something like that.

Additionally, it seems that the count down restarts from 24 hours after the first 24 is over. It would also be worth noting in the message that, if the review is done after the initial 24 hour period, they will still have until the end of the new count down before their account is removed (if that's the case) or if the account will be removed immediately upon review, let them know that, too.

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We already do this. When you confirm that you'd like to delete your profile, and your profile is eligible to drop into the dev queue at the conclusion of your countdown, you'll see this additional message on the confirmation page:

Due to your reputation and/or number of votes, the deletion will require final approval from a developer after 24 hours. Once approved, your profile will be deleted immediately - you do not need to request deletion again.

This message is also displayed in the text if you visit the cancel deletion page which is basically just the Delete Profile screen while you are currently scheduled for deletion.

If your countdown already expired and you are currently sitting in the dev queue, attempting to visit the Delete Profile page again will give you this message:

You recently requested deletion of your profile. Due to your number of votes and/or your reputation, this deletion requires final approval from a developer before it is completed. Once approved, your profile will be deleted immediately - you do not need to schedule your profile for deletion again.

If either of these message are not appearing, then that's a bug that we need to look into.

As an aside, these messages both make it clear that the review will not take place until after the 24 hour countdown, and that deletion will be immediate once reviewed.

At most, we could add "but will require approval" at the end of the first sentence in the banner, with a link to the same page for explanation, but I'm not a fan of adding a whole block of text to that banner that would make it bulky on the profile page, given they should have already known about it anyways.

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  • 1
    I have a user in chat who seems to have no clue why their account hasn't been deleted. I'd rather not link it here. – Catija♦ Oct 12 '17 at 16:21
  • The thing is, this user interprets the 24-hour limit as a countdown, so seeing their account is still "active" after 24 hours passed by, is confusing. This user (me) has a notoriously bad reputation with new technology, it would not be the first time I clicked something I shouldn't have, or misinterpreted a message. Past experience tells me that I did something wrong, or I didn't follow the precise procedure. Hence the repeated delete button. – Mari-Lou A Oct 13 '17 at 5:53
  • I scheduled the deletion a second time because I was not sure if I had followed the correct procedure. I can confirm that I did see the message on the deletion page but my profile page appeared to be normal, and that confused me. If the profile page contained a message, such as deletion scheduled it would be clearer. It would also have been helpful, and saved everyone's time, if a mod from the site contacted this user using the normal channels available. – Mari-Lou A Oct 13 '17 at 6:01
  • I have an account pending deletion on an SE site as of nine days ago, and there's no text about number of votes or reputation. The only text is "This account is scheduled to be deleted May 7 at 12:49. To cancel deletion, click here. IMPORTANT: If you've requested deletion on other Stack Exchange sites, you'll need to cancel those separately by visiting each site's profile." So either there's a bug in that my account on that site hasn't been deleted yet, or there's a bug that the "final approval" message isn't appearing. – Kyralessa May 15 at 14:42
  • @Kyralessa You'd have to file a bug report for that. There is no situation in the code itself where it should ever be displaying only the cancel button. – animuson♦ May 15 at 15:02
  • How does one file a bug report here? – Kyralessa May 15 at 15:25
  • @Kyralessa You just create a new question here with the bug tag and include all the details in the question body. – animuson♦ May 15 at 15:26
  • Can you please remove the "and/or your reputation" in this message, since it's inaccurate? – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog May 28 at 5:23

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