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10k users can't vote to delete questions until they've been closed for two days, to give 3k users a chance to reopen. This is useful for most posts, but for obviously terrible posts that get closed in seconds and downvoted into the ground it just gets in the way. Usually people spam flag those sorts of posts (whether they're spam or not), and either that kills them or a mod notices and deletes them before the two days are up. Is it possible to relax the two day rule through some "terrible post" criterion, like the one used for the review page?

Edit: I think based on Jeff's link in a comment that I was unclear. I'm not saying 10k users should be able to delete whatever they want; I remember when that post came out. I'm saying it seems like the engine swung too far in the other direction. We went from "10k users can delete as many posts as they want all day long" to "10k users can delete X posts per day, as long as those posts are two days old and have no upvotes". Deletion is the 10k ability, and it's crippled. I'm fine with requiring more votes if the post or its answers have upvotes, but I think the two day thing is unnecessary for certain posts that are obviously going to be deleted anyway. Make the criteria comically strict if you want -- don't allow deletion if the post has a single reopen vote, or a single upvote; that would still let 10k users delete a lot of terrible posts without flagging for mod attention

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  • What's the harm if a crap question stays undeleted for 2 days? If it's closed and/or has a ton of downvotes, people know it's low quality. – j_random_hacker Dec 21 '10 at 1:21
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    @j_random_hacker It's not that it's a problem, it's that I think delete votes would be more useful if I ever...well, used them. I rarely come across ancient posts that need deletion, but I come across 5-minute-old posts that I know are going to end up deleted on a regular basis. Generally spam flags or a mod ends up getting them, and I'm not sure why 6 15-rep users spam flagging a post is considered "safe" but 3 10k-rep users aren't trusted to handle it – Michael Mrozek Dec 21 '10 at 7:31
  • Thanks for the explanation, makes sense now. – j_random_hacker Dec 21 '10 at 23:42
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Is there any reason why flagging for moderator attention is not sufficient?

I'd rather increase the number of mod flags if necessary.

edit: mod flags have been increased. Everyone has the "standard" number of mod flags, plus one additional mod flag for each 1k rep they have, up to 100 total per day. So a user with 25k repr has 10 + 25 = 35 total mod flags to use in a given day.

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    Technically no, but you can argue that there's no reason to let non-mods close or delete anything then; they should just use mod flags for all cases. I virtually never cast delete votes, even though I see posts that should be deleted on a daily basis, because all those posts are less than 2 days old – Michael Mrozek Dec 14 '10 at 5:56
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    I'm still hesitant to mod flag bad content that isn't acutely dangerous or massively offensive, and I assume many others are, too. I'd vote for 10k+ users to be able to delete crap without moderator attention straight away - and maybe, maybe even 20k+'s votes to count twice – Pekka Dec 20 '10 at 14:40
  • I agree, I don't want to just flag whatever just because I think it's horrid content, I would rather reserve mod_attn for things like you should totally run ":(){ :|: & };:" as su root to speed up your system like a leet haxor instead of thanks!!!!!!!!!!!! – jcolebrand Dec 20 '10 at 22:30
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    @pekka we had that once and it didn't work out so well. You guys better get used to flagging, or else just stop altogether, because what I have learned is that the community can't be trusted with deletion unless the thresholds are very, very high. – Jeff Atwood Dec 20 '10 at 22:42
  • This is great news! Would it be possible to also address this issue? – Jon Seigel Dec 20 '10 at 22:51
  • @Jeff fair enough. What about an additional "flag for deletion"? "flag for mod" feels to me a bit like calling the emergency number about a cat stuck in a tree (instead of calling the local police station's desk). – Pekka Dec 21 '10 at 0:06
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This was implemented through the trusted user privilege, which allows deleting questions immediately after closing

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