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I know if we delete any post or answer it is not deleted permanently, Suppose for example this post which is deleted including my answer but still the post is visible to users having 10K+ reputations.

Questions :

1) Is it possible to delete that answer permanently from SO?

2) Is there a way to raise request to SO people to clean my account (which means delete all deleted answers or Posts on my account permanently from SO)?

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  • They won't be deleted permanently.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Jul 20, 2019 at 14:09
  • your edits invalidate the existing answer. Please don't do that again.
    – rene
    Oct 27, 2019 at 6:44

1 Answer 1

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  1. No. In theory, you could get a post dissociated (which isn't really deletion), but "I regret posting that" isn't a good reason. More or less, its worth actually thinking before you post. Nothing you post on SE is completely gone, I suspect. The only things that seem gone gone are redacted posts, and those are probably saved somewhere. Practically, the best thing is to actually consider what you post and where you post it before you do.

  2. No, and honestly, it's probably a bit of a waste of resources and wouldn't scale at all if people started doing it.

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  • but what is the use of deleted post? anyhow new users cannot view those
    – Deadpool
    Jul 20, 2019 at 14:17
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    Well, the random person wandering in can't see it. Previously - only 10k users could see them, but that seemed silly- so you can find your own posts if you had a link. And even deleted posts can count for reputation, good or bad.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Jul 20, 2019 at 14:18
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    You could add that, once posted, answers (and questions) are no longer the author's "property" and that they first need to check the license they are publishing under. That's why a request to permanently delete one's own contributions won't be successful.
    – Anne Daunted GoFundMonica
    Jul 20, 2019 at 14:24
  • If a user requests to close thier account and all info (this would include any links back to user name) then SE would be going against all rules and regs the GDPR has been set up for. It's early and I haven't looked at the SE GDPR policy but I presume one can state to remain anonymous or get everything deleted
    – Dan K
    Jul 21, 2019 at 4:02
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    Uhm. I don't get what posts have to do with privacy. And GDPR gets waved around so much. Citation needed.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Jul 21, 2019 at 4:04
  • The primary reason that redacted posts are redacted is that SE doesn't have the legal right to the content, so if they're keeping the content anyway they're just opening up themselves to getting sued and losing their safe harbor protections and all sorts of other legal badness. That there are so many steps to go through for redaction, and that so few people can do it, is precisely because it's actually gone.
    – Servy
    Jul 22, 2019 at 15:45
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    Uhm. Redactions exist cause people mess up and post things they reaaaaaaaaaaly shouldn't. I'm confused about which part of perpetual irrevocable licence means SE has no right to the content.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Jul 22, 2019 at 23:44

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