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On the bottom of questions tab of the user profile, there is a link that states "Deleted recent questions".

This links to http://site.stackexchange.com/users/recently-deleted-questions/xxxxx. The title of the page is 'User Flair', which seems odd in itself.

What is this page meant to show? Whenever I have looked at it it is blank for me, to test I deleted one of my questions on Android.SE however six hours later the recently deleted questions page was still blank.

Is this feature not working, am I incorrectly interpreting it (for example is it only moderator/community deleted questions) or was my experiment a failure due to long term caching? Having now re-read the link I see that whilst the title is "Recently deleted questions", the link is to "deleted recent questions" - does the question have to have been recently asked?

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2 Answers 2

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It's an experiment.

See, this is one of the all-time most popular feature-requests here on meta. But past experience suggests that implementing it as-requested would result in unbearable amounts of wailing, gnashing of teeth, meta complaints, Twitter rants, cats sleeping with dogs, CHAOS...

So instead, we're showing a link (visible only to profile owners and moderators) on the Questions and Answers tabs that'll list the given user's deleted questions or answers, currently limited to those posted deleted in the past 60 days (editor's note: this was changed in February 2020).

So far, this has proved to be unobtrusive enough to avoid serious problems. We'll continue to monitor its use, and any questions or complaints that result from it.

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    The page title is "User Flair", I sure hope you plan to change that if the experiment goes well and it's kicked out to the open.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 11:13
  • @ShaWizDowArd That was definitely just an oversight. :) It should be fixed soon (in the next build, I believe).
    – Laura
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 21:31
  • Cheers @Laura! While at it, can the link please be changed from "deleted recent questions" to "recently deleted questions"?
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 21:33
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    The current wording is more descriptive of what it actually does, @Sha
    – Shog9
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 21:34
  • Is this now live for everyone? If not, how do you determine the select few people who get to see it? Is it based on reputation?
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    Commented Aug 12, 2013 at 12:14
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    It's live for everyone, @Cody.
    – Shog9
    Commented Aug 12, 2013 at 14:49
  • In my "deleted recent answers", some items are not clickable even though I have over 10K so can view my answers even on deleted questions. So why unclickable?
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Aug 14, 2013 at 11:11
  • Please report that as a bug, @Sha. Also report the bit where even the clickable ones don't actually link to the answer. Thanks!
    – Shog9
    Commented Aug 14, 2013 at 14:37
  • @Shog9 cheers, wasn't sure it's a bug at first. Reported here and separate report about the "clickable ones don't actually link to the answer", which I missed. :)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Aug 14, 2013 at 14:45
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    You should still see it, @Ellesedil. If you don't, then post a bug report on meta.gaming.stackexchange.com with a screenshot of gaming.stackexchange.com/users/current/?tab=questions
    – Shog9
    Commented Aug 8, 2014 at 18:59
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    I proposed any deleted post can be accessible by the owner forever. That can keep the owner aware of what questions he has had, the comments and answers that he had received, which are still useful when he encounters the same problem again in the future. Last but not least, he can also learn from why they were deleted. Shall I post this proposal as a new post?
    – Tim
    Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 23:08
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    @Tim: Yes! Please make that a proposal. My most popular question is headed for the bit-bucket because a group of moderators thinks info on old software is useless.
    – DocSalvager
    Commented Dec 30, 2014 at 9:51
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    Is this still the current state? It would be better if it wasn't, given this Programmers meta question where the asker can't see why he was question blocked.
    – Thomas Owens
    Commented Apr 23, 2016 at 18:17
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    He's question-blocked because he asked a bunch of questions that were heavily downvoted and then closed, @thomas. The system warned him about this repeatedly while these questions were still accessible. If you want to help him now, some concrete advice on how to salvage those questions is essential; unless you see yourself reopening them, there's no real point in dredging them up.
    – Shog9
    Commented Apr 23, 2016 at 18:52
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    I've suspected a bug there for a long time... Will test when able. Thanks @gnat
    – Shog9
    Commented Sep 4, 2017 at 4:06
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Can the link be hidden if there are no recently deleted questions? Otherwise it just takes up space on the page and makes the user think one of their questions or answers was deleted. On SO, one of my questions was deleted for inactivity because the answer was put in the comments, and when I tried to find it, this link was no help because it was not "recent" enough. If the link is going to appear when there are no recently deleted items, then I think questions/answers deleted from all time should appear.

Why go to this link

my questions

just to see this?

no deleted recent questions

I also agree that users should be notified when their question is closed or deleted, but I guess that's a feature for another thread.

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