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This question is not a duplicate of Show all of my question/answers to me even if they are deleted (which I was aware of and referred to it below) in its current state. That post received a over 10 years ago and a lot has changed since then. All details are mentioned below.

It has always bugged me that the deleted:1 operator has the following two restrictions combined:

  1. It can only be used to find one's own deleted posts.
  2. It's only available for users with 10k rep or higher.

I can see how allowing users to find deleted posts from other people could be problematic, but the second restriction doesn't really make much sense (at least to me) as long as the first one is enforced. I get that it might make some historical sense but I believe that it should be revisited.

If the reason behind this restriction is to avoid complaints from users about their deleted posts, there are two counterarguments to that:

  1. Experience has shown that it's unlikely to have a major effect:

    Jeff's concern with allowing people to see their own deleted content was that "it would lead to unbelievable amounts of whining." As we've relaxed the restrictions, that hasn't happened. Jeff was right to be worried, but as it turns out he was wrong about how people would respond. That's a real encouragement.

  2. Users can already (more easily) see their recently deleted posts anyway. And it's more likely for someone to complain about a post that was recently deleted than whine about an old post.

Some benefits of removing this restriction:

  • It will enable experienced users to search for their deleted posts on sites where they don't have 10k rep yet without workarounds that might not work for all posts.
  • Enable post-banned users to find their own deleted posts without wasting the time of moderators (anyone can guide them to using the deleted:1 operator rather than having to wait for a moderator).
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    Does this answer your question? Show all of my question/answers to me even if they are deleted
    – cigien
    Commented Feb 14, 2021 at 21:36
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    No, it doesn't (otherwise, I wouldn't have referred to it in my question). That post is from 2009. A lot has changed since then (including introducing the deleted:1 operator).
    – 41686d6564
    Commented Feb 14, 2021 at 21:39
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    That post has been updated to mention the deleted:1 operator. In fact, the latest revision is from mid '20, so I'd say it's fairly recent. It's not clear to me what new arguments you're presenting here, but I may just be missing them.
    – cigien
    Commented Feb 14, 2021 at 21:44
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    The updates you refer to are just... well, updates. That post has a [status-declined]. Other posts have received a [status-completed] either because of the deleted:1 operator or because of the added ability to view recently deleted posts. Those two features were considered "good enough" at their time. My argument is that a) no, they're not good enough for the reasons mentioned above. And b) I don't see why removing the 10k restriction is problematic. I couldn't find any post that specifically ask for removing that restriction. Hence why I created this post.
    – 41686d6564
    Commented Feb 14, 2021 at 21:50
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    @cigien The point of the updates at the top are simply editor's notes for context, so that people who aren't aware that deleted posts used to not be shown in the manners they are today will know the context as they read the years-old post. Also, it's allowed to post new requests that ask to reconsider past declined requests, as long as they clearly refer to the past request and bring something new to the table, which this does.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Feb 14, 2021 at 22:38
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    @SonictheCuriouserHedgehog Oh, I had no idea that's what those updates were. I also didn't know that [feature-request]s were allowed to be resurfaced like that . It seems the closure as duplicate is inappropriate then. Thanks for the clarification and the link. I can't flag/vote to reopen unfortunately.
    – cigien
    Commented Feb 14, 2021 at 22:43

1 Answer 1

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As of January 2022, a new change has been shipped, which replaces the "Recently deleted questions" and "Recently deleted answers" links on one's profile with "Deleted questions" and "Deleted answers" respectively, and both pages now list all the user's deleted questions/answers, not just the recently deleted ones.

That isn't exactly what this post was asking for (i.e., it doesn't allow low-rep users to search in their deleted posts) and the linked answer explicitly states that that will remain the case:

We want to keep the deleted content obscure because we do want people to be able to forget about/not be constantly confronted with their deleted content. As such, we will be implementing this by simply removing the 60 day limit and renaming the recently deleted questions/answers rather than adding deleted content to a user's list of questions and answers directly. We're also going to keep the deleted:1 search function as a high-rep user perk.

(emphasis mine)

However, I'm quite happy with that recent change as I think it provides tools to solve the core problem anyway. Therefore, this post can be considered both and . I'm happy with it being tagged either way.

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