I mod a sub that is about a specific appliance. I have a few users who are habitually deleting informative posts once they get their answers. They will ask highly specific questions, get a few answers, then delete their post. None of their post is personal information or anything embarrassing, but I understand everyone is entitled to remove their content.
How do you all feel about this? Do you feel itās a bannable offense if they continue doing so after being asked not to remove their posts as the posts help others with the same issue? Non-issue? How do you go about this if you mod a similar sub?
Edit: thank you for your responses. I appreciate you sharing your experience and thoughts about this.
They do so for the majority of their posts based on their history and karma. A lot of what they post is NSFW, so itās understandable they want to remove that. Many of the other people in one of the subs they frequent are also removing posts, so it may just be a behavior that the user picked up there and applied to other subs.
There are have been some questions about where content went. Some users who answered have made comments about why it was removed, assuming that I removed it. [deleted] shows when a user removes it though.
The practice definitely doesn't support the whole "this question has been asked a million times, go use the search feature" attitude that a couple of my subs have.
I dislike it because it's selfish. So personally I wish the profile would give an indication of if they're a habitual deleter. If they were, I'd think twice about spending a few minutes answering their question.
While I of course believe people have the right to delete their own posts, I understand why this would be detrimental to a sub where you want content to remain visible to help others.
You can make a rule that says no deleting posts once you've received your answers and you could temp or permanently ban people for doing it. It's up to you if that's how you want your sub to be run. I have absolutely been in subs where this was a rule, though it's pretty uncommon.
I don't enforce anything like that in subs I mod, but I have found myself bummed when someone makes a great post that receives tons of good information and then they delete it so no one can benefit from it in the future.
I absolutely hate it when posters do it in the writing subreddits. I don't mind giving public advice, when if somebody wants tailored private advice, I have a rate sheet for that.
This is a legal obligation for Reddit to provide to users in the EU. Some food for OPās thoughts. Users must be able to delete their content under GDPR.
Itās quite nuanced when you get down to it. The law is explicitly about personal data, so there is all sorts of case law about what does and doesnāt qualify, and exceptions. Itās called the right to be forgotten, you can google it. If automod copies it, publicly, and doesnāt copy the username and the comment doesnāt contain identifying info Iām sure itās fine bc itās not attributable. If it copies the username or there is personal data, then it may be infringing on the userās right to delete it if they are in the EU. I am not a lawyer just a person in the EU repeating what I know from work and life. Reddit is a decentralised model so I think they get away with doing a lot of finger pointing āwho me?ā type reactive management, but theyāre publicly traded now and growing in Europe so I feel like theyāll be hauled in for interrogation at some point. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.
Hey thanks for sharing! Information is always welcome and appreciated. Itās definitely something to consider.
Iāve seen some people say that their automod copies both the username and the content. I can understand why you would want both as the username can help with trolls, and the content retains the information.
I get it, I just expect it to be no longer allowed in say five years. Apparently the c suite isnāt even very tuned in to some of this stuff. Like, someone high up found out about dev apps sending data offsite recently and some of the devs were asked to make changes. I didnāt hear the resolution to that but I hella wondered if it was about gdpr.
This is fascinating. If you posted here about that I bet it would get a lot of traction on how it has affected communities and how they are moderated. I know Iād attend that Ted talk lol.
It annoys me but I don't have a rule on it. If someone is constantly doing it I make a quick modnote and if they ever make a thread that is useful, or contribute to one, I make a remark asking they leave it up if possible to help other users out when they search the topic.
The only removal that get under my skin is the users who use Redact. Because often the mass of mixed words trips Reddit filters and there is lots of clean up.
Thereās a free version and a paid version. I think the free version is the one creating the spam issues, but I havenāt looked into it in a long while. It does specifically state it will not remove, but obfuscates content so itās not like the users donāt know what theyāre doing.
The website for it says one can use it in Reddit for free. Some probably do pay for it. The funniest thing is for Reddit the website says
"Remove old Reddit posts and comments to get rid of any old skeletons in your post history that are costing you karma."
A mess of nonsense words isn't going to help anyones karma. Also when I come across users who have used it but are actually still popping up in the sub, they get mod noted and every new post or comment is heavily scrutinized.
I've created a custom set of automod instructions to auto-remove redact'ed posts without notifying and clogging up the mod queue, but still adding the info to the mod log that it took action. I put it at near the top of the automod instructions so its hit first. Hope it helps!
---
# QUIET & CLEAN: remove Redact mass-deletion artifacts
type: any
body (regex): '(?i)this post was mass deleted and anonymized with\s*\[?redact\]?'
action: remove
action_reason: "Auto-remove: Redact cleanup artifact"
Redact is bannable in my community. Anyone who uses it and destroys discussion threads with a bunch of gibberish automatically gets banned and the gibberish posts removed via automod. It's a form of spamming, when it comes down to it. Every Redact removal is replaced with an ad for the app.
I do wish that Reddit or something like Redact would create a tool that removes the username but leaves the content up. I think most people wouldn't mind leaving their content up, they just don't want them on their posting history. Given the option to simply disassociate them from their account, most would probably choose that instead.
It happens a lot in some subs, people get their answer and don't want to have it on their account history. It's fine.
If you want to do a FAQ or monthly answer roundup type post with those, it'll serve the same purpose as the users leaving the post up for others to find.
Do a post with usernames stripped out, have a summary of the issue along with the remedy?
I had to setup something similar having Automod quote the OPās username in the auto reply because people will post NSFW rule breaking content and then delete when it gets reported before a mod can issue a ban and weād be left with no way of knowing what the OPās username was.
I donāt think it would be messy. It is just like when you post here and the automod puts a long post to try and auto answer your question. Itās not copying every single comment, just the text and username of the original post.
Youāre correct. I just want the information as itās helpful for others. I can understand why larger subs would want the username for reposts and trolls though. Thanks!
Someone else mentioned that people may be deleting to avoid further notifications if they've gotten their answer. You can also use AutoModerator so that the OP can comment "SOLVED", "ANSWERED", etc., and the post gets locked to new comments.
It's not too bad. I have it set up in one of my subs. It's just a single comment on each post. It is hit or miss - it randomly doesn't work sometimes and I haven't quite figured out why, but it's pretty clean when it does work. Then if the user deletes or edits something that changes the context of the comments, you can still see the original.
It only copies the post, not the comments. OP's issue is the post is getting deleted which eliminates the question and all of the context for the answers that have been posted.
We have a rule against post deletion put in at the request of the community. They get a warning and then they get banned. We've never refused to take a post down if they've asked us to remove it in modmail.
People are allowed to delete posts, but if you're going to do that, you can't keep eating the time and effort of our contributors. Our subreddit also allows throwaways, we don't care if you abandon the account after you've got your answer.
But if the whole post is deleted by the user that still wouldnāt show anywhere, right?
It would be accessible to anyone who had a link to the post already from commenting on it or anything, but itās not gonna show in the subway anymore, right ?
A deleted post is absolutely not visible on the sub anymore. Itās not a deleted account, which would show u/deleted and still have the text of the post. Itās a fully user deleted post, which as far as I am aware is not natively available unless using an additional tool (similar to admin tattler would show if an admin removed something, but whatever the tool would be for showing a deleted post.)
Please correct me if Iām wrong because if there is a place to see deleted posts easily without additional tools, then there are several people here who would love to know. Thanks!
Edit: TIL that the username is actually used by someone lol.
While it is their right to delete their posts it is literally using the community for their own benefit and giving nothing back. If it's the same users over and over again then I believe you could make an automod rule that replies to their posts with a copy of what they wrote, at least that way it gets preserved
The ones who habitually delete in my main sub do so in order to hide their troll tracks. They really like to play coy after being banned, asking what they said as they flutter their eyelashes, knowing that they've deleted the offending content.
I absolutely love it when they pop back up months or even years after a ban acting innocent or overly confident and wanting to be unbanned while almost demanding that we point out exactly what they said, and then finding out that everything was archived off-site lol.
I can see how that can be frustrating, especially when the answer is deleted like your example post. Someone posting that it worked, but not seeing what āitā was can annoy users. I think when users think the mod is the one who deleted it is whatās more frustrating.
Yes, but on many forums (here, too) the post title may stay up and be visible in search engines, but the actual post body disappears. But anyway, it's better to keep the sub as friendly/welcoming as possible, so that the considerate people leave their posts up.
Itās really only a few people who do this. Itās really weird because they will delete the post content, but then continue in comments. Eventually they delete the comments too. Iām unsure if this is common behavior or not.
I believe it is common behavior, seeing as how I run into it across many questions I ask to Google across time and space. Inconsiderate, thoughtless, poor thinking, etc. but common.
In your place, I would ignore people who delete their posts once they get their answers and instead recruit some active moderators to build a wiki with answers to frequently asked questions.
I made a rule in my sub about this and I ban people that break it. It's extremely rude and selfish to remove something that can help someone else!
I explained exactly that in the rules so people know it, suggest you do the same. Mention how if they want to be anonymous, to make a new account and post it with that.
Temp ban first offense, then permanent if they do it again.
Two different things. Deleting a helpful post is just plain rude.
It's more like the guest brings the pie (the question), has the host supply the whipped cream (the answers) and then the guest takes the pie back home, full of whipped cream that only they can enjoy.
Hereās an alternative. If you see a highly detailed question and a really good answer, copy it down and build a wiki page full of these useful tidbits. Soon, youāll have a really useful wiki page!
Then it wonāt matter what gets kept and what gets deleted.
How do you find these posts after theyāve been deleted though? Unless I commented on the post or know another specific user who commented, how do I find the post again? I canāt look under the posterās username, even if I remember it. And find the text of the original post question? Youāre basically saying copy down all good posts and replies just in case they get deleted. And do this 24/7 because you never know when it could happen.
Automod transcribing the post title and body text into a comment on said post is the solution, here. That way even if deleted the content is still available and the automod response will appear in google results for users with similar problems.
So still, how do I find and identify that post? Does it show up in the mod log? Am I looking through automodās comment history? Do I just need to remember enough key words in the original post and hope I get a google result?
In OP's scenario, I would think the intent of the copied post text would be for purpose of developing a wiki. I would think there would be a moderator (or moderators) reviewing recent posts regularly to make those updates.
You'd come across the deleted posts that way but still have the information you need for your wiki updates.
Well if the supposed issue is finding the content to solve a problem yourself, then simply google the problem with "site:reddit.com" added and you'll get decent results just from Automod transcription.
If your supposed issue is finding the content for adding it to a hypothetical wiki, and you're worried about not being able to get the content to add it, then simply repeat the solution to step 1, because you'll still get the post you're looking for and therefore the answers you need for your wiki, posted by users in reply.
If somehow you're building a wiki or solving an issue and cannot come up with enough keywords to even google the problem in the first place, well, then I suppose you're just shit out of luck.
Iām just saying everyone says the automod copy solves the deleted posts issues, but while it does preserve the text, IMO itās not really a solution if thereās no coherent way to find all of the deleted posts, regardless if for quality content in a wiki, or offensive content that gets deleted before it can be actioned, or annoying leach posters that take their answer and dip. You still have to know what youāre looking for to find it.
I completely understand as the post is no longer on the sub if the user deletes it unless you had a link to the post already. Without using additional apps or devvits, itās difficult for a mod to find deleted posts if they didnāt already have the information. Itās not something that is easily available in the app, but may be on the web as there are more options there.
Had that a few times, especially with people posting a controversial topic, waiting until it gained traction, then deleting it. We added a public comment that names the person who submitted it, which makes it easy for both mods and users to track who posted a deleted thread, and it seems to have curbed the worst of it.
In /r/ukpersonalfinance we forbid this. We strongly encourage the use of throwaway accounts to make deleting unnecessary. It's hard to track but repeat offenders do get temporary bans because it's really rude to the people that put in a lot of effort to share their knowledge.
Since Reddit is using and selling people's content for LLM and other uses, we had such a rule in a tech support-ish community (we didn't enforce it because it's their right) but now it's more like asking them to consider leaving it for the future.
One thing you could do is have Automoderator reply to each post with the body of the post. So if they delete, the Automoderator comment still provides context. A deleted post still exists, just not viewable from the community's front page, but should still show up in web searches. Can also have Automoderator comment with the post body if it detects an edit if you want to capture all states.
If it's a single person doing it in bad faith and disrupting the community (are people voicing concern?) then ban for that, not the deleting itself. And perhaps clarify that it falls under that rule.
OP if you're lookin for actual hands on solutions to this, this is your way right here. You could probably even set it up to keep the poster's username anonymous as well, if you care about their apparent concern for privacy.
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I have a rule regarding deleting their post on one of my subs, as soon as they have high engagement, they delete them off, itās annoying but it is their account.
But yeah I ban them on one of my subs but donāt bother from the rest of my subs.
Is your sub used for karma farming, or rage bait engagement? Or is it more of a Q&A sub? I know a lot of bots will post and then delete for karma, but I donāt think this user was doing that.
IMHO people tend to do this primarily because they want to stop getting notifications about the thread once they get the information they want. Reddit should make the option to stop getting notifications on a post as easy as it is to delete.
Or, in the case of "how to" subreddits, etc., moderators can use AutoModerator so that the OP can comment "SOLVED" or "ANSWERED", etc., and AutoModerator will lock the post. No new comments, no more notifications.
I think for iPhones it is as easy as deleting the post.
Itās all on the same page.
Like other users have mentioned, we canāt be sure why they deleted it. For the future, the community gave great feedback on how to save the information which is super appreciated.
In one community - if you start deleting a lot of your posts, you're done. B/c one of the things we're looking for is longevity in the community and a post history that gives us details about other posting limits (like for sharing links or selfies or things like that -i.e., we want to see when you're going over your limit and deleting means we can't always do this accurately). In another...I feel like they do it to avoid being trolled b/c there is personal/sensitive info (I get it, I do, still, annoying). And in other cases, people are embarrassed b/c they realize they are stupid. I'd want to tuck my tail, too if I were some of them! And still others...it's a kind of trolling where they think if they delete it fast enough they can't get banned.
And then I do a ctrl+F search and look for [deleted]. And then I use comments from the deleted post to find the deleted post and lock it. And if I need to...take an action on a user. That is rarer, but I actually encountered a situation like that today. I am not sure if the user was intentionally trolling but their behavior got out of hand/was inappropriate in comments after the fact. They deleted their post and there were enough comments describing the post body that I could get a good idea that they weren't in the community in good faith.
And on most of the posts in the sub they get some kind of user greeting after initially posting. I have one for NEW users and one for users with a few karma points:
# Auto Greeting for NEW USERS
type: submission
is_edited: false
author:
combined_subreddit_karma: "< 10"
comment: |
Hey /u/{{author}}! It looks like you might be new here. Welcome!
...then I link a few things like rules, and wikis they may find helpful. And if they dirty-delete, then I have their username. And I can use that to ban them.
"Do you feel itās a bannable offense if they continue doing so after being asked not to remove their posts as the posts help others with the same issue?"
Only if you made a rule that says that. You can run your sub almost any way you want, as long as you don't break reddits site wide rules. If you make a new rule for this, I suggest you pin it to your Community highlights for a month or so to get the word out about the new rule.
If you want it bannable, then change the rules, and if they do it again, then take appropriate measures as per the new rules you set. While it is your sub, and you can ban who you want, it's generally not in good practice to punish someone if it's not against rules/guidelines.
Deletions aren't something mods can or should control.
I don't know what sub you manage but the fact that you called it about "a specific appliance" and it's NSFW (from another comment), makes it seem like it IS embarrassing. I can only work with what information you give about it.
So, if you don't even want to mention it clearly, then I can well understand why some wouldn't want to be seen as permanently engaging with your sub. So I wouldn't do anything about them deleting, but well understand people have their reasons in the same way Reddit mods all have different opinions on banning.
Letting them delete is something I would suggest you fully support and not question. It's what they're comfortable with. Think of it like consent. They allowed it briefly. In deleting, they're no longer consenting.
They mod three subs about freeze drying food, and I assume the "appliance" is referencing the one sub for a specific brand of freeze dryer. If I read the nsfw comment correctly they were saying the user in question posts nsfw content in other subs, not OP's.
Correct. I apologize for the lack of clarity. The user posts NSFW content and deletes that content which is why I was thinking they just use the deleting behavior learned in the NSFW community and applied it to the sub I mod. It seems like thatās pretty common behavior in that sub, which is weird because it seems to lock out anyone who wasnāt there within a few minutes of posting but they continue the conversation in comments that they donāt delete.
What they posted in the sub was not NSFW or embarrassing in anyway way. It was a technical post about the appliance.
The users post about cannabis and other NSFW content. The appliance itself isnāt NSFW, but can be used to process cannabis. Itās a freeze dryer and the majority of users do not use it in this way, so the content is a very small part of the community.
I wasnāt mentioning the sub clearly because I wanted to follow the rules here and not call out a sub.
Not really, you don't need a rule against something to be able to ban for it as this is not a court of law. You can run a sub with a million subscribers for years with a single rule that amounts to 'don't be a PITA'
Yeah, it's not great, but it shuts down any attempts at rules lawyering. It's also a reason why many subs have a rule like 'moderator discretion'. We're not lawyers and our subs are not counties so there's no point in trying to make a rule for every single possible infraction when Reddit supports only 15 rules.
Having an obscure rule like donāt be a PITA is very unclear. Mod code of conduct is pretty specific on setting appropriate and reasonable expectations. Having ambiguous rules doesnāt create transparency and users arenāt given a clear expectation of what the rules are.
Iām not saying have 15 rules, but one ambiguous rule based on how much of a PITA a user is being isnāt a predictable experience for the user. What can be considered PITA behavior by one mod could be fine for another mod. There are a lot of differences in countries, cultures, and generational behaviors that could make it difficult for users to understand what PITA means.
The moderator discretion rule is great for a catch all, and I agree with you that it does stop rules lawyering, but for your example the single PITA rule would be something I wouldnāt personally agree with.
Then don't have a single rule, for some it works, for others it doesn't, all I'm saying is you do not have to have rules for everything, and in fact you don't have to have rules at all (almost).
You can disable followers and also now hide your comments and post history from the default view (still easily searchable though, this is a public website after all)
I know exactly what youāre talking about here! I think itās sketchy if people delete their posts period Unless theyāre trying to hide something which is basically the same thing as using redact. Which I donāt think that redact can work on posts anyway. Users have the ability to hide things on their profile so the only reason that they would be doing it is because they messed up or because they donāt want mods to see it which aligns to me with spam
I wouldnāt ever say that anything is 100% for any specific reason. Not all deletions are for nefarious purposes. Do trolls and karma farmers do that? Absolutely, but that doesnāt mean everyone who deletes is a troll, karma farmer, or doing something they shouldnāt be.
Thatās just my opinion on it.
I just want to save the information, which thankfully a ton of people gave great advice here for.
Itās annoying but IMO thereās nothing wrong with what theyāre doing. Iāve been a Redditor for well over a decade and since Reddit started to shift into profit focused mode, Iāve been going back and purging my content. If Reddit wants to profit off us without any compensation, then Iām going to continue to delete my content as soon as Iām done with it.
I think particularly about how LLMs with Redditās blessings are scraping the siteās content to train itself. So my thoughts, my words, my eloquence can better improve some tech bros bottom line? No thank you. The moment content has served its human purpose, as in a question has been answered, a reply read and reacted to- then I delete it. Sorry Reddit, but as a public traded company now, I donāt give my IP away for free anymore.
Itās frustrating when users do that, especially when it was a genuinely helpful post. But just as some subs ban for deleting, many more will automatically ban a user in question who has their profile blockedā¦like you.
So if you think that practice (a Mod banned you just bc you chose to keep your activity a secret) is overstepping, then apply that from the perspective of a user you ban bc they chose to keep their activity secret. And then move forward from there.
Deleted content doesnāt show up when a mod looks at your profile, but curated content does. Though they both touch on privacy, they are separate moderation situations. Personally, a profile with 100,000 karma and no posts or comments will be looked at differently than someone who has a curated profile.
If a mod wants to ban someone for curating their profile like I have, then they can. If they want to ban someone for deleting content they can do that too.
Iām not going to apologize for curating my profile, just like Iām not expecting the user to apologize for deleting their content. Would I prefer them not to delete it? Absolutely, but thatās not realistic with how these few users interact. The community has provided great advice on how to deal with this situation through automod and monthly posts recapping information that may have been removed, so Iāll be doing those things.
I believe you missed the point of the comment. It wasnāt a judgement on anyoneās choice, it was an empathy exercise since itās difficult to see someoneās perspective when you already have a strong opinion about the other side. OP is asking if this rule would negatively effect their community - if having a similar rule applied to them is annoying but not the end of the world, that tells them one thing. If it would upset them enough to think negatively about that community, then that tells them another. Thatās all.
Iām the OP. What I asked was how people felt about the situation. Were they on team ban, team non-issue, or how they would deal with the situation. If I had a strong opinion about one way or the other I wouldnāt be asking for input.
Bringing up my profile being curated is a privacy issue that is not related to the question I asked. An empathy exercise would be helpful if it were relevant, but curating and deleting are two entirely different things. They both relate to privacy, but that is like answering a question about chocolate with vanilla. Yes they are both flavorings, but I asked about chocolate.
Iām not trying to fight about anything. Iām just explaining that my perspective as youāve explained yours. I got some fantastic feedback here that will help keep content available while also providing the user with the option to delete if they so choose, so Iām pretty excited about that.
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u/words-in-space Dec 11 '25
If you feel like it diminishes the ability of other members to learn from the Q&A you could make a Rule about excessive deletion.
Have users complained?
Another comment or below suggested a Wiki - I think thatās brilliant