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From time to time single users are “removed” for whatever reason together with their questions and answers, and also the reps of those who answered their questions. While the reasons for users being removed are not revealed, I don’t understand why I can’t easily see which of my answers were removed as a consequence.

-20 7 hours ago removed User was removed (learn more)

What is the reason for this?

I am asking Why not how.

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  • 5
    "which of my answers were removed as a consequence."...meaning, which of your answers you posted to negatively-scored questions that were deleted on the question author's account being deleted? If you're referring to that, you can see those under "recently deleted answers" in your profile.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 8:26
  • Yes, Sonic's right. Open profile page, click activity, click answers, scroll down until you see "recently deleted answers" ||This page shows answers you posted that were deleted in the last 60 days. This includes answers to questions that were deleted.||
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 8:32
  • @Mari-LouA - it appears the page reports the answers I deleted, not those deleted by the system, for instance. Thanks anyway
    – user121863
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 8:40
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    Then please edit, and clarify that you have already searched but cannot find those answers deleted by the system. I think you're mistaken, but I have often been proved wrong.
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 8:43
  • @Mari-LouA - a user was removed a few hours ago and all I can see is the reps deletion. Checking the “activity”, “answers” , “recently removed answers” track, the latest removal dates 5 November and was mine. That’s all. But I may be wrong of course.
    – user121863
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 8:48
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    Why do you think your loss of reputation is due to deleted answers? When you lose reputation with the “user was removed” reason, most of the times this means that the user upvoted some of your answers, and these votes get deleted along with the user account, not that any of your posts get deleted. Note that when a user account is removed, their questions and answers are normally not deleted, they are just anonymized.
    – Emil Jeřábek
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 9:15
  • @EmilJeřábek - fair point. In any case I’ll never know which of my posts were affected by the removal, whether for being deleted or just for a loss of reps.
    – user121863
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 9:20
  • @EmilJeřábek - I don’t think that a removed user is simply anonymized. If rep is affected it means that the account is deleted.
    – user121863
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 9:22
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    The account is deleted, but their posts are not; they are anonymized in that their owner is shown as “user<number>” unlinked to any user profile.
    – Emil Jeřábek
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 9:42
  • @EmilJeřábek - do you mean in that if a user asked a question and I answered that question and both posts got 10 upvotes each, after the user is removed, their question and my answer are still visible to users and only the reps are removed?
    – user121863
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 9:48
  • @EmilJeřábek - ok, if that is the case why can’t I know which of my answers lost the 10 upvotes but is still visible?
    – user121863
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 9:54
  • That's a different question, please edit the title and body to reflect it.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 9:55
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    Does this answer your question? How does deleting work? What can cause a post to be deleted, and what does that actually mean? What are the criteria for deletion? - Why: "Answers are automatically deleted when the question they're attached to is deleted. Such answers are automatically undeleted when the question is undeleted, except for answers that were deleted before the question was deleted.". There's more info at that link: "You can see any of your own questions that you have the direct link to, and your own deleted answers to any question.".
    – Rob
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 12:19
  • It is also possible to use SEDE to find deleted posts of deleted users, and filter for ones containing your answers.
    – Rob
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 13:02
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    user121863, the two answers here offer some insite into "why should that be so complicated”; the information is hidden because it's generally "not useful". The user was deleted for "a reason", privacy policy prevents the information being easily available to everyone. If it was due to "voting irregularities" then probably they upvoted your posts to cover-up the upvoting of other posts; if they only upvoted their own (on multiple accounts) it would be obvious which accounts were involved. Other reasons apply to obsessing over initial downvotes; and the plea for answers as to why, or revenge.
    – Rob
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 14:51

2 Answers 2

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The loss in rep from users being removed is almost always from upvotes being deleted (as each -10 is an upvote). This means that the posts still exist, but they just have one less upvote, as if it never happened. Upvotes are always removed when the deleted user didn’t vote much, or there was vote fraud involved with the account at some point.

Sometimes it’s pretty obvious who cast those votes, particularly when the deleted user was high rep. I think the reason why you can’t (easily) see which specific posts had votes on them is to try to preserve some degree of privacy for the votes.

There are some cases where this could cause your post to be automatically deleted, but for any of those posts, a single well-placed downvote would cause it to be deleted too.

There are two ways to see your deleted posts:

  • At the bottom of your questions and answers tabs in your profile, use the links to your deleted questions and deleted answers.
  • Get the ability to see deleted posts on a site (unlocked at 10k or 2k rep depending on the site), then search for deleted:1

Note that there’s no easy way to see which posts were recently deleted, at least as far as I know.

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  • All users can easily see which of their own posts were recently deleted. At the bottom of the full list of the user's questions and answers (i.e. the tab in the profile that displays only questions or only answers) is a button to show the user's recently deleted questions or answers (as appropriate for the tab they are viewing). Ahh... This looks like it's covered in Mari-Lou A's answer.
    – Makyen
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 21:28
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"which of my answers were removed as a consequence."...meaning, which of your answers you posted to negatively-scored questions that were deleted on the question author's account being deleted? If you're referring to that, you can see those under "recently deleted answers" in your profile @ Sonic the K-Day Hedgehog

Yes, Sonic's comment is correct.

But finding that information is neither quick nor intuitive

Open profile page, click activity, click answers, scroll down until you see the voice: "recently deleted answers", which says

This page shows answers you posted that were deleted in the last 60 days. This includes answers to questions that were deleted.

Perhaps it's time for a "deleted posts" tab to be included among the options.

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    Most likely, no posts of the OP were deleted in the first place, which is why nothing shows up in their “recently deleted answers” (as they report in the comments). They only see a loss of rep from reversed votes by the removed user.
    – Emil Jeřábek
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 9:45
  • Your link just goes to this answer...
    – OrangeDog
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 14:03
  • @OrangeDog could you please tell me if this link takes you to Sonic's comment meta.stackexchange.com/questions/356609/… As a standalone link it works for me, it opens in new tab, but I don't understand why the embedded version doesn't.
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 14:09
  • @Mari-LouA Your link in the comment above ends with "#comment1191477_356609", which works, but your embedded link in your answer ends with "#356612" instead. I also tried pasting both versions into new tabs in my browser, with your comment one working but not the answer embedded one. Also, note the "share" output from Sonic's comment matches your comment link.
    – John Omielan
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 14:26
  • @Mari-LouA it does
    – OrangeDog
    Commented Nov 14, 2020 at 15:39
  • As of recently, it's all your deleted questions and answers, not just recent ones.
    – Laurel
    Commented Jan 15, 2022 at 2:22

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