Community Wishlist Survey 2021/Miscellaneous/Make deleted edits visible to their author

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Make deleted edits visible to their author

  • Problem: Make the deleted edits visible to its author. Deleted edits are restricted to admins and checkusers. I think that a user should be able to see his/her deleted edits not of others.
  • Who would benefit: All users who would like to see their deleted edits
  • Proposed solution: Just make the edits visible to their authors.
  • More comments: All above.
  • Phabricator tickets:
  • Proposer: Empire AS (talk) 07:01, 22 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

There should be some security problems, but at least I would like to see titles of deleted pages I had edited - useful eg in commons - according to name I can search it in log and maybe made new upload with correct licence. JAn Dudík (talk) 09:43, 23 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I think that there would be no problems regarding security. A user should be able to see only his/her edits, not of others. So, in future, he/she might stop the increase in his deleted edits. Empire AS (talk) 11:42, 23 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
No. This will let people just posting their deleted spam / defamatory posts / vandalisms/ hoaxs etc more easier w/o the need to keep it somewhere else. Camouflaged Mirage (talk) 11:53, 23 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I support any version of this proposal that can provide me with a *minimum* of information about *which* of my edits were deleted (I agree here with JAn Dudík's comment). If I'm not mistaken, as it currently stands we can only find info about deleted pages but not deleted edits. I just need some kind of info for reference/tracking purposes, especially in order to understand what was deleted and *why* so that I don't repeat my mistakes again (I agree here with Empire AS's comment). And for added safety allow this function/privilege only to the authors of the deleted edits who are also *Extended-Confirmed* users. Cordially, History DMZ (talk) 19:33, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@Martinkunev: Well you shouldn't be able to view deleted edits right now, you do not have admin rights on any Wikimedia wikis. The deleted edits here refer to the content of deleted pages and revisions, not text simply removed from the page and publicly visible on the history page. H78c67c (talk) 01:18, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

  • Editors wouldn't use these deleted edits to repost their 'deleted spam / defamatory posts / vandalisms/ hoaxs etc more easier' but they'll stop making such edits after knowing to them, I guess. I may tell an incident here that in the beginning when I was too new, I used Xtools to see my edits + the no. of deleted edits. However, the number of deleted edits was increasing day by day and I didn't even knew how or why it was happening. Therefore, I reached an admin who told me that most of my deleted edits are from my sandboxes. Then I understood my mistake that I didn't move the sandboxes to the articles but rather used copy-paste method and tagged sandboxes with G7. However, after knowing, I controlled the increase in my deleted edits by moving them. If I really knew this before (that was possible if I was able to see my deleted edits), then I wouldn't have big no. of deleted edits. Besides this, deleted edits would also help users to understand what sort and type of their content was deleted and why so happened. They would be able not to repeat such mistakes in future, and such content (like deleted spam / defamatory posts / vandalisms/ hoaxs etc) wouldn't be uploaded anymore. The backlog of WP:REFUND would also decrease. Thank you. Empire AS (talk) 10:00, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Reading the opposing comments I'd just like to make a point: spammers could always have a copy of what they published, whether this feature is available or not. H78c67c (talk) 01:06, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

They could, H78c67c. But we don't need to help them, or to make it unnecessary to keep a copy. Cabayi (talk) 14:13, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean you'd like the developers to develop :-

-- Cabayi (talk) 14:13, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Those are lists of pages we created (which still exist). That sort of format would work, but instead it might show edits we made to pages which have now been deleted. To address other editors' concerns, we might not want to make the text available, just the editor, timestamp and edit summary (unless revdeled, of course). The proposal wouldn't give me access to anything secret: I can now download my contribution history daily and save it locally in case a page gets deleted, but the suggested change would be more convenient for me and avoid bothering the server by regularly downloading data I'll never read. Certes (talk) 14:28, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I echo Certes here, the above format suggested by Cabayi (if applied to deleted *edits*) could work. It would include the timestamp, page title, and edit summary. But it's missing the log link with the admin's reason for deletion (see XTools example below, next to my vote). Cordially, History DMZ (talk) 15:43, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Cabayi: Yes, something like that, but I will see exactly this and you this. JAn Dudík (talk) 14:47, 16 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Exposing deleted edit content needs to be on a per-edit basis, set by an administrator, and only if the request is in accordance with a "what admins are allowed to let contributors see" per-project policy. I think the API already allows you to see certain meta-content of deleted edits, including who made them, how big the edit was, and the timestamp on the edit, tags, but not the edit summary or content. Making it easier to see this already-accessible content, perhaps via a gadget or external tool, would be a good thing. Davidwr/talk 16:29, 21 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Voting

  • Doubtful It is doubtful I am unsure whether it is a good idea or not. On one hand you allow them to learn why it was deleted. On the other hand, edits only get deleted if they're offensively bad from what I have seen, so if they can review their edits, they can just copy that and slap that back into the article on a new revision and the admins will have to delete that edit again. MarioSuperstar77 (talk) 19:40, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@MarioSuperstar77: I don't think that it would happen anymore. As I can guess, an editor would use deleted edits to stop them from happening in future. Therefore, they would not repeat such edits anymore and admins would've no need to delete that edits again when they wouldn't be even made. Thank you. Empire AS (talk) 10:13, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Victor Schmidt: According to your view point it would happen. But as I see and can guess, I don't agree with you. Deleted edits visibility may help users to stop rehappening them and admins working here may help there in any other field of encyclopedia instead of deleting revisions that were happening due to not knowing the reason of their deletion. Thank you. Empire AS (talk) 10:26, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Martinkunev: the proposal isn't about live edits. It is about that edits that are deleted known as 'deleted edits' only visible to admins checkusers, oversighters etc but not to even their authors. Thank you. Empire AS (talk) 06:22, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
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