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I've seen something that's bothering me, but I don't know if my loss of faith in good intentions is warranted.

A highly controversial post was made, followed up by a lot of comments, edits and meta posts on one of the sites I like. Almost the same day, the poster of the question apparently marked their account for deletion, and I can see that this happened overnight, because the question now no longer is attached to that profile.

Yet, I was surprised to see that the user now has a new account with an association bonus, and is still commenting away on their original question and it's answers. Which makes me guess this isn't about a question that was disassociated from the account, because why would you then still comment under your original name, and freely acknowledge this was your question?

Now, most of the comments made while this account was apparently marked for deletion to me looked like they were either outright rude, or made to keep the controversy on the main site and meta going. Which makes me think... Could this have been a clever ploy, a way to get a window of 24 hours in which this user could troll the site, without being suspended?

Can an account that's marked by it's owner for deletion, be suspended in the mean time?

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  • Was the user suspended when they deleted their account?
    – rene Mod
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 10:33
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    @rene They were not suspended before marking their account for deletion... I stalked the account for a while, and it seemed they weren't suspended after marking the account for deletion either, hence my question. I guess what makes me worried is that their behavior seemed to be getting worse after they indicated they marked their account for deletion.
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 10:36
  • Things used to be a lot better when staff had to activate the deletion timer on behalf of users
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 15:16

1 Answer 1

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Sure. I've done it a few times before the deletion was carried out, to keep someone from vandalising content . Hypothetically in practice, I'd suspend someone who's using the self service delete option, and choosing to self vandalise their old posts during the cool off period.

And any un-served suspension will carry on to the recreated account (which happens to recreated spammers....).

We can't suspend a deleted account cause there's no account. We can delete afters.

I'd probably do a custom flag since you'd need local mod follow up if they're misbehaving and there's not always an obvious audit trail between accounts.

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  • do you get notified if an account that has moderator notes is about to be deleted?
    – rene Mod
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 10:45
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    Thanks... so, just to be clear: you can suspend and then delete, but if I went through this process, you won't be able to suspend me for the 24 hours it takes to remove my account? Or you only won't be able to suspend me afterwards?
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 10:45
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    Totally could suspend you during that 24 hours. Hypothetically in practice I'd do that say if someone started bulk vandalising posts during said 24 hours.
    – Journeyman Geek
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 10:48
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    Thanks :) I just raised the moderator flag. I just wanted to be sure, before accusing someone of deliberately gaming the system :D
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 10:54
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    "We can't suspend a deleted account cause there's no account" - but SE staff can, Shog confirmed that in chat. :)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 14:01
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    I'm not staff though, and there's only so much I can do
    – Journeyman Geek
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 14:02
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    @Tinkeringbell An account deleted by a moderator for user conduct or destroyed for spamming will have a 14-day suspension recorded in their name at the time of their deletion, which is immediately "reinstated" should they recreate their account.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 15:20

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