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At the start of 2025 there were several questions paraphrasing a contest question (2/3/36 of https://files.usamts.org/Problems_36_3.pdf) including

When the last of these appeared, I could not find the previous versions as they had been deleted and so I could not find when the contest was due to close and whether the latest version should be treated the same way. Fortunately in this particular case another user could.

Is there any way of tracking these sorts of questions and the information they contain?

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    $\begingroup$ I second this question. By sheer chance, I was able to find other quasi-duplicates in this case because I could go through my browser history. Seems like an unreliable mechanism. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 6 at 17:44
  • $\begingroup$ Obviously if the question has content, for which a site power user has to search for, then that question should have not been deleted et all. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 6 at 18:46
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    $\begingroup$ SEDE has many metadata about the deleted posts, but not their text. You need to find some other metadata to find them, then search them on the SEDE, then use your 10k+ privilege to see their body. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 6 at 18:48
  • $\begingroup$ @peterh What the questions had was the link to the contest including its end date, though not necessarily in the body of the question. Yes, it could have been more helpful dealing with the later questions if the earlier questions had been closed rather than deleted. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 6 at 19:07
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    $\begingroup$ @Henry Sadly, these are not available in the SEDE. What might work: 1) politely ask a moderator, they can search in the deleted content. 2) there are unofficial trackers saving everything posted into the SO, unfortunately few of them are really working. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 6 at 20:13
  • $\begingroup$ Related discussion: Is there a need to patrol for deleted questions? $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 7 at 5:13
  • $\begingroup$ Very much related: In search for a possibly deleted question $-$ see in particular this answer. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 7 at 5:14
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    $\begingroup$ Here is another (also deleted) duplicate of this question that I found on January 2nd: math.stackexchange.com/questions/5018680/… $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 7 at 16:14
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    $\begingroup$ @VV_721 That one was posted by same user who posted this...now claiming that it was supplied by some friend. Indeed, that user also posted this which is again from the same, then on-going, exam. So, it seems that this user was trying to cheat systematically and relentlessly...but it was hard to see that as some of the posts were deleted. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 7 at 21:42

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