I made an answer on SO that got deleted. However, now this answer is actually hidden, meaning I can see it, as well as moderators I think. Though it's no big deal really, I don't see the point of keeping it hidden and would prefer to tight up SO and make it disappear.

=> So is it possible to actually fully delete the deleted/hidden question?

Note on context:

The answer I am writing about was a duplicate of my answer to another question that also applied to this question. I lazily duplicated it, without editing it to better fit the question. My bad. And it got deleted, rightfully, and I lost an up-vote.

When I found out it was deleted, I tried to edit it to fit the question better and ask to undelete it. But I couldn't: clicking on "undelete" just tell me A moderator has deleted this post and it cannot be undeleted. So I simply made a new answer. And there are simply no point in keeping the first hidden answer. Note that this answer, apart from being initially a duplicate, is suitable for SO standard.


  • I am in a XY problem situation here
  • I selected Madara's answer that answers my explicit question (the X)
  • However, I was looking for the wrong solution to my actual problem and ChrisF's answer actually answer my real problem (the Y)
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    Posts are actually soft-deleted, not deleted. The new post-notice banners changed the wording to "hidden", I think; which might be what is prompting this question. – yivi Oct 31 at 14:43
  • You couldn’t undelete because your request was rejected or because the option isn’t available? – BSMP Oct 31 at 14:48
  • Yes probably. And actually I would understand that SO, probably using some bigdata DB, is not interested in actually deleting data in the DB. However, I am pretty sure that if it was deleted by me and not a moderator, it would have disappeared. But now I cannot click on delete – Juh_ Oct 31 at 14:49
  • @BSMP when I click on undelete to flag for undeletion, I get the message A moderator has deleted this post and it cannot be undeleted – Juh_ Oct 31 at 14:57
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    Moderators can't hard delete content. Only SE employees can do that. Mods can pass requests for hard deletes if requested via a custom flag (eg for passwords/api keys/PII/HIPPA/etc data. – Dan Neely Oct 31 at 14:58

This has always been the case. When a post is said to be deleted, it is actually hidden. Users with more than 10,000 points of reputation can see deleted (a.k.a. hidden) posts, through the Access To Moderator Tools privilege.

That it is now called "hidden" rather than "deleted" is merely a UI, cosmetic, change, and does not affect the functionality of the post deletion system.

  • But I would think (not sure anymore though) that if I deleted the answer my-self, it would have disappear (i.e. hard-delete). If so, why couldn't I do the same on a "hidden" answer? Or I am wrong to think self-deletion induce hard-deletion ? – Juh_ Oct 31 at 15:03
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    No, @Juh_. Deletes are always "soft" deletes. Even if you perform them. Only staff can do hard-deletes. – yivi Oct 31 at 15:05
  • Fun fact, the first question on Stack Overflow "Where are my pants?" was deleted at the database level. – Davy M Oct 31 at 15:21
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    @DavyM Figures. The one question I need an answer to. – Gimby Oct 31 at 15:27
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    The Boat Programming question was also hard-deleted. We hate fun even more now than we did then. – Robert Harvey Oct 31 at 16:01
  • I still mourn the deletion of the programming joke/comic threads. They were the best curated collections of that sort of material I've ever seen. – Dan Neely Oct 31 at 16:51

To answer the question you didn't ask:


This is because it was moderator deleted and we don't want people to be able to undelete what we've decided needs removing.

In this case you should edit the answer and then flag it for moderator attention - explaining what you've done - so we can review your edits and undelete it if it's now OK.

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    Are you saying that for this situation, I should click on flag and explain the situation to a moderator (that I edited the answer, and it should now be ok) ? – Juh_ Oct 31 at 15:06
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    @Juh_ Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. – ChrisF Oct 31 at 15:06
  • Mmmm... I am in a xy problem situation then :-/ and here you answered the x – Juh_ Oct 31 at 17:24

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