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According to this thread, once a user hits 10K, the deleted:1 search operator becomes available, but it only allows users to see their own deleted posts.

This seems a bit counter-intuitive to me. Given that the whole point in seeing deleted posts is to ensure the feature is being used correctly, as delineated in the preceding paragraphs, shouldn’t you be able to use deleted:1 to see all deleted posts, and then follow it up with, say, user:me to see your own?

This would have the added benefit that if there’s a problematic user with the ID user:x, you could search deleted:1 user:x and see how much trouble they’re stirring up behind the scenes.

As a potential expansion of this, if this gets implemented, it might be useful to add an operator like deletedby:owner, deletedby:community, deletedby:mod, etc. to specify not just that it is deleted, but also who deleted it.

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    "This would have the added benefit that if there’s a problematic user with the ID user:x, you could search deleted:1 user:x and see how much trouble they’re stirring up behind the scenes." - That is pretty much exactly why we don't allow that. No one but a diamond moderator needs to be searching up a user's history.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Aug 16, 2018 at 1:20

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This is actually by design.

The whole point of seeing deleted posts isn't really to ensure that the delete feature is being used correctly, so much as it gives high-reputation users the opportunity to find their older posts that have been deleted, which would be otherwise impossible.

This search function works as you describe for moderators of a site, giving them access to all deleted posts, not just their own and the ability to limit results by user.

Users with access to the 10k tools can actually see recently deleted posts using the deleted tab on the tools page. For the site you have 10k on, that's here. This allows you to view posts that have been deleted as long ago as 30 days. For review purposes, this should be sufficient.

If you think that more detailed inspection is necessary, it's probably better left up to a moderator to handle, as any action would need to involve them, anyway.

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    Why, then, is the operator limited to 10K+?
    – DonielF
    Aug 16, 2018 at 1:01
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    I don't know that there's a specific reason other than "that's what was requested" combined with "seeing deleted posts is generally linked to access to 10k tools". I'm pretty sure there are existing FRs asking to let users see their older deleted posts (outside the 60 days they can see from their profile).
    – Catija
    Aug 16, 2018 at 1:11
  • @Catija meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2645/…
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Aug 16, 2018 at 2:46
  • @SonictheInclusiveHedgehog Not quite the same. It doesn't explain why only 10k+ users have access and long predates the search.
    – Catija
    Aug 16, 2018 at 3:46
  • @Catija I asked Shog about this in chat, he said he stands by this comment on Jeff's answer to that question.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Aug 16, 2018 at 4:18
  • @Sonic Jon's answer, linked in the question specifically refutes that assertion... As we've relaxed the restrictions, that hasn't happened. Jeff was right to be worried, but as it turns out he was wrong about how people would respond. That's a real encouragement.
    – Catija
    Aug 16, 2018 at 4:36

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