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Q&A Permanently delete duplicated questions and answers?

I'm pretty sure you can't. Of course, it would be technically possible for someone with database access to go in and permanently delete a post. But no such feature is exposed in the UI, up to and ...

posted 2y ago by Canina‭  ·  edited 2y ago by Canina‭

Answer
#2: Post edited by user avatar Canina‭ · 2021-11-25T18:03:19Z (over 2 years ago)
  • I'm pretty sure you can't.
  • Of course, it would be *technically possible* for someone with database access to go in and permanently delete a post. But no such feature is exposed in the UI, up to and including users with moderator access. (It's possible that it would be accessible to an administrator, but I don't think so.)
  • More broadly, such a feature would go contrary to the fact that the [CC BY-SA 4.0 license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode) is *irrevocable*. (My emphasis below.)
  • > Section 2 - Scope.
  • >
  • > a\. License grant.
  • > 1\. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, **irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material** to:
  • > A\. reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part; and
  • > B\. produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material.
  • (When you post to Codidact under that license, "You" includes Codidact as the initial licensee.)
  • Deleted posts are also only visible to a subset of users ([bugs notwithstanding](https://meta.codidact.com/posts/284937)), so this isn't a big problem in practice.
  • I have seen some cases where the owner of a post has edited it to delete the actual content, when duplicates were posted, and simply indicate something like "this was a duplicate of &lt;some other post by link&gt;". For situations where the content is truly a duplicate, and especially where the post is long, this may be acceptable; but note that it still does nothing to change the licensing status of the originally posted content.
  • I'm pretty sure you can't.
  • Of course, it would be *technically possible* for someone with database access to go in and permanently delete a post. But no such feature is exposed in the UI, up to and including users with [administrator](https://meta.codidact.com/comments/thread/5032) access.
  • Deleted posts are also only visible to a subset of users ([bugs notwithstanding](https://meta.codidact.com/posts/284937)), so this isn't a big problem in practice.
  • I have seen some cases where the owner of a post has edited it to delete the actual content, when duplicates were posted, and simply indicate something like "this was a duplicate of &lt;some other post by link&gt;". For situations where the content is truly a duplicate, and especially where the post is long, this is probably the best (or least bad) option; but do note that it still does nothing to change the licensing status of the originally posted content.
  • Another at least potential issue is that such a permanent deletion feature would go contrary to the fact that the [CC BY-SA 4.0 license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode) is *irrevocable*. (My emphasis below.) At the very least, such deletion would make it more difficult to show that some content *was* provided under some specific license, as also to some extent discussed [elsewhere](https://meta.codidact.com/comments/thread/1523#comment-5002).
  • > Section 2 - Scope.
  • >
  • > a\. License grant.
  • > 1\. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, **irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material** to:
  • > A\. reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part; and
  • > B\. produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material.
  • (When you post to Codidact under that license, "You" includes Codidact as the initial licensee.)
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Canina‭ · 2021-11-25T09:10:51Z (over 2 years ago)
I'm pretty sure you can't.

Of course, it would be *technically possible* for someone with database access to go in and permanently delete a post. But no such feature is exposed in the UI, up to and including users with moderator access. (It's possible that it would be accessible to an administrator, but I don't think so.)

More broadly, such a feature would go contrary to the fact that the [CC BY-SA 4.0 license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode) is *irrevocable*. (My emphasis below.)

> Section 2 - Scope.
>
> a\. License grant.  
> 1\. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-sublicensable, non-exclusive, **irrevocable license to exercise the Licensed Rights in the Licensed Material** to:  
> A\. reproduce and Share the Licensed Material, in whole or in part; and  
> B\. produce, reproduce, and Share Adapted Material.

(When you post to Codidact under that license, "You" includes Codidact as the initial licensee.)

Deleted posts are also only visible to a subset of users ([bugs notwithstanding](https://meta.codidact.com/posts/284937)), so this isn't a big problem in practice.

I have seen some cases where the owner of a post has edited it to delete the actual content, when duplicates were posted, and simply indicate something like "this was a duplicate of &lt;some other post by link&gt;". For situations where the content is truly a duplicate, and especially where the post is long, this may be acceptable; but note that it still does nothing to change the licensing status of the originally posted content.