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recently my profile began allowing me to view deleted posts. This is a privilege I appreciate, however, in some cases the post in question is one I'd have rather not seen at all.

I'm sure I don't have to elaborate, and I'm also pretty sure that other moderators have come across deleted posts they wish would just go away, rather than linger on the bottom with a red background just calling for attention.

So my question is: is there any way for a moderator to kill a post dead? Meaning, that it wouldn't show at all, even as a deleted post?

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    AFAICT this is impossible, and that's what Isaac Moses's answer indicates also. Perhaps retag this as a feature-request?
    – msh210 Mod
    Jun 21, 2011 at 18:38
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    I think giving this feature to moderators, no matter how trustworthy they may be, can lead to abuse (or at least a lack of trust in the transparency of the system). Mods need checks too.
    – yydl
    Jun 21, 2011 at 22:48

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I don't think we have the ability to purge individual posts. We can, however, edit them to remove the offending material from the eyes of anyone who doesn't dig into the revision history. In the recent attack, some readers took it upon themselves to do just that even before we deleted the posts.

If you see deleted material that's offensive, and if you have the power to edit it, go ahead and do that. If not, flag it with a note saying that it's deleted but needs cleansing, and we'll handle it.

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  • PS: I see that we missed one of the recent ones, which is probably what prompted this question. I've now handled it, and I believe that the most recent attack is now fully cleaned up.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Jun 21, 2011 at 18:17
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    Thank you, @Isaac.
    – Barry
    Jun 21, 2011 at 18:35
  • A Dev can "purge" a post completely, but this is reserved for people accidentally posting passwords, SSN's etc. online.
    – Double AA Mod
    Feb 16, 2014 at 17:04

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