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When looking at my Stack Overflow profile I see I have 64 posts edited:

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When looking at the statistics of an accepted review, I see I have 74 posts edits:

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When looking at my reputation, I see my reputation decreased due to User was removed. My assumption is, that I have accepted edits of deleted posts (either the post or the user was deleted).

When looking at my accepted edits (user 2359227) I see the edits of the deleted posts.

If, when removing a user the reputation decreases, and the amount of the posts edited decreases, why aren't the accepted edits? Why aren't those deleted from the database? What is the purpose of approved edits of deleted posts?

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    Nothing is ever deleted from the database, really. Posts are marked as deleted and no longer shown in most places and to most users but they are still in the database. Suggested edits are kind-of separate from posts, they have their own entries, and are not marked deleted, like posts are. So while the posts are “deleted”, the approved suggested edits are not. That’s the difference here.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Sep 30, 2020 at 7:18
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    And because posts can be undeleted again (the “deleted” status removed), you can get your points back for those posts. Potentially. You wouldn’t want to have lost the suggested edit record in such cases.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Sep 30, 2020 at 7:20
  • @Martijn Pieters: Jeff Atwood hard-deleted the boat programming question (referenced at 1 h 02 min 43 secs in episode 50 of the Stack Overflow podcast, classic series (2009-04-21)).
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Sep 30, 2020 at 15:50
  • @P.Mort.: yes, I'm aware there are a few exceptions that were hard-deleted. They are very rare exceptions; the boat programming question plus 1 or 2 of the first posts ever made were hard-deleted.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Oct 1, 2020 at 8:43
  • I had already realized that although the posts were deleted, the suggested and approved edits were not.
    – Solkarped
    Oct 4, 2020 at 1:17

1 Answer 1

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The "posts edited" in the profile page counts only posts that were edited. Since posts can be deleted, the number will decrease when a post that you edited is deleted.

On the other hand, the "edit suggestions approved" counts how many suggested edits of yours were approved. Unlike posts, edit suggestions are not deleted, they're on their own, so the number is not affected when the target post is deleted.

Bottom line: 10 posts that you edited were deleted, hence the difference.

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    One counts how many suggested edits were approved. The other counts posts that were edited. Posts are deleted but suggested edits are not.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Sep 30, 2020 at 7:15
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    @MartijnPieters thanks, that's a great way to explain this. Care if I'll copy this into the answer then?
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Sep 30, 2020 at 7:23
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    Go ahead, I don’t have time right now to turn it into a proper answer, better if you did it instead! :-)
    – Martijn Pieters
    Sep 30, 2020 at 7:23
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    There’s more in comments on the question ;-)
    – Martijn Pieters
    Sep 30, 2020 at 7:24
  • Thanks @Martijn I've incorporated some into the answer. :)
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Sep 30, 2020 at 7:38

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