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  • Re point one, just had to do that today on UX, since they couldn't post it again (doesn't allow duplicate posts!) Wonder how many people quit before they think on Meta (or can't, in the case of non-SO sites) Commented Mar 6, 2013 at 21:21
  • See my comments to Jon E in another answer here. In particular the ones that contain the words "loss aversion". Commented Apr 6, 2013 at 8:10
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    @JeffAtwood I know you're opposed to this; and you have good reason to be -- but there is a disconnect between what the system requires for a user who is question banned, and what that system currently lets that user do to fix the fact that they're question banned -- and deleted posts hit right smack in the center of that problem. Commented Apr 6, 2013 at 17:21
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    You'd need to bury this feature behind a checkbox at a minimum -- maybe deeper -- to prevent absolute rioting in the streets due to loss aversion. (See: reputation deletion visibility changes that I strongly advised against, and now everyone knows why) Do you think the kinds of users who need to be mindful enough to understand content removal will be able to find the hidden corner of the site where their deleted content is? I'm not so sure. Commented Apr 7, 2013 at 1:36
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    'I worry that we're losing more good content when this happens, but no one is bringing it up because they don't know about it.' Yes today I just started 'worrying' about my answers/solutions/references I post (because a question intrigued me or needed a similar solution in the future) on SO. Up until today I started using SO as my main knowledge base: I can search it by (memory)association, answers could be merged (ok fine), I could even retrieve my own formatting of code I shared via the edithistory (should someone have changed that). Never realized I could be locked out of my own answers Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 0:14
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    @Jeff Atwood and George Stocker: It turns out the feature does exist and it is buried behind a checkbox. People who are motivated enough can see their own deleted content. Thanks to an undocumented feature (bug?) you can also recover the text of your question if you have the URL. But you can't see any comments or answers. Allowing people to be treated as trusted users for the purposes of viewing their own questions (which is essentially how they are treated for deleted answers) seem a very minor tweak to the system and, given the votes here, a popular one. Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 17:23