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This question had a factual, referenced answer. Now it has a deleted, factual, referenced answer.

A moderator wrote "I removed the references, and then deleted the answer as unreferenced."

Why was this answer deleted?

To be more specific, the references were removed late last evening saying they were 'light'. They were to Wikipedia, but I was using them to back up essentially well-known figures over which there is little dispute. The comments also said they 'backed up the claim', something I don't understand since they backed up figures I used to declare the claim false. Then a few hours later, most of which was night in my time zone, and before I had a chance to look at the edits to the answer, the entire answer was deleted.

If anyone, mod or otherwise, believe the answer needs additional references, please say so in comments and I will add them.

As an answer pointed out, it is possible to request undeletion. The answer now has references, so I formally request undeletion.

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  • LOL, the post was undeleted, then just deleted again. What the hell is going on here?
    – user34380
    Jun 20, 2016 at 14:41
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    I deleted this myself, because there is now a better answer than mine that says all the stuff I wanted to, but with better references. Please vote up ryan's answer. Jun 20, 2016 at 14:46
  • Ah, alright makes sense. Thanks for clarifying. :)
    – user34380
    Jun 20, 2016 at 14:54

1 Answer 1

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Here's the full motivation, hope it helps you fix your answer.

This question had a factual, referenced answer. Now it has a deleted, factual, referenced answer.

It had an answer with 3 links, of which two to wikipedia and one to an opinion blog post followed by 157 people. This cannot possibly support 10 paragraphs of text, where you present five different points in disfavor of the blog post.

A moderator wrote "I removed the references, and then deleted the answer as unreferenced."

This is the comment that was left:

Having checked the existing references -- I'm removing this as unreferenced and highly upvoted. There are only 3 references: 2 to wikipedia which repeat the claim and one to a blog with 157 followers. I will happily open a meta question if you think it's necessary, but the deletion reason seems clear in this case.

"It" refers to the answer, not the references. Why would we remove references?

To be more specific, the references were removed late last evening saying they were 'light'. They were to Wikipedia, but I was using them to back up essentially well-known figures over which there is little dispute. The comments also said they 'backed up the claim', something I don't understand since they backed up figures I used to declare the claim false. Then a few hours later, most of which was night in my time zone, and before I had a chance to look at the edits to the answer, the entire answer was deleted.

No references were removed, as you can check for yourself in the revision history. All the edits are yours except one by a user changing capitalization.

If anyone, mod or otherwise, believe the answer needs additional references, please say so in comments and I will add them.

I did ask for more references hours before deleting. Then I went to sleep. When I woke up this morning there were many flags both on the question and your answer. People were arguing in the comments and I cleaned them. This is a typical symptom of an answer appealing to common sense and the zeitgeist, together with the effect of the Hot Network Question List traffic.

I therefore double checked your references and discovered that none of them was in fact supporting your answer. Two references supported the figures for world war I and II deaths, but the claim is about other numbers as well (colonization, Iran Iraq war...).

In any case the figures you found are same figures in the claim, and they clearly do not support your opinion that the claim is "misleading".

The other reference is to a criticism on a blog post, I am not sure why you think is evidence. It's certainly not a reputable reference.

In other words, your answer reads like your reasoned opinion, and it is not referenced enough, yet highly upvoted by the incoming network users. Our policy is to delete such answers.

As an answer pointed out, it is possible to request undeletion. The answer now has references, so I formally request undeletion.

I'm happy to undelete it when it presents solid evidence, sticks to the facts and avoids speculation. I also notified all the mods when I deleted your answer so they could double and triple check my actions.

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    "I'm happy to undelete it when..." the OP has claimed that the deleted answer has been updated to meet site standards. How many people here have 10K+ rep? The problem with your proposal I've quoted is that you're essentially left as judge and jury over this content, not the community.
    – user34380
    Jun 14, 2016 at 15:46
  • @TechnikEmpire it's the same on every Stack Exchange site. Deciding on deletions is for the subset of users with most rep. It's hardly an argument against deletion. Mods are not ultimate judges. The community team can certainly investigate mods.
    – Sklivvz
    Jun 14, 2016 at 15:48
  • "I did ask for more references hours before deleting. Then I went to sleep.". Well guess what. I was out for the evening, and then I was asleep. When I woke up the post was deleted. Jun 14, 2016 at 15:50
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    "Deciding on deletions is for the subset of users with most rep." So if a user with 27k reputation asks for the post to be undeleted, you'd do that? Jun 14, 2016 at 15:52
  • Sklivvz, comments are not going to be adequate space for me to address your concerns. Would you like to start a chat where we can address this properly? Privately if you prefer. Jun 14, 2016 at 15:53
  • Sure thing! Feel free to ping me.
    – Sklivvz
    Jun 14, 2016 at 15:54
  • It's not the same though, because this site, according to @Dawn, has < 15 members with enough rep to give input on your decision. Subtract other mods, the user who's content is being contested, and you've got a handful of impartial contributors that might be able to scrutinize your decision. I think it's clear as day that the community is completely out of the loop here, meaning my original assertion stands.
    – user34380
    Jun 14, 2016 at 15:58
  • I counted 15 that have been posting things. There are many more that might sit on the sidelines and vote (including voting for undeletion). But regardless, that is how the site works. The ability to scrutinize deletions by viewing the deleted content is a privilege given to 10K+ users and the original author.
    – user30557
    Jun 14, 2016 at 16:01
  • @Dawn the difference is that other sites are much more mature with many, many more high rep (active) users who are capable of acting, which balances the scales in a situation like this. I did not mean to misrepresent what you said.
    – user34380
    Jun 14, 2016 at 16:03
  • @TechnikEmpire Agreed. But that balance is one we (or at least I) can deal with. I don't need to know the inner workings of every deletion or even any deletion. We have 6 mods that represent our will.
    – user30557
    Jun 14, 2016 at 16:04
  • @TechnikEmpire Privilege levels can be tweaked. If you want to argue for lowering this privilege, feel free to do so in a meta question. However we have to work with what we have right now.
    – Sklivvz
    Jun 14, 2016 at 16:05
  • @Dawn but when dozens of users upvoted content that was blown away, then "represent our will" is called into question. Skliwz, that's a reasonable point/suggestion. I'm not meaning to attack you, I'm just pointing out that situations like this are suspicious or at least piques curiosity, but it's a very exclusive club you need to be in to find out what's really going on, which compounds the problem.
    – user34380
    Jun 14, 2016 at 16:08
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    @TechnikEmpire one thing you're missing about that +78 is that the vast majority of those votes would have come about because of the questions appering on the HNQ list - attracting many many visitors who, like you, are not aware of our long-standing community policies and expectations. I'm not saying theiir upvote was irrelevant, or should be ignored, but that answer would usually not have gotten a quarter of those upvotes.
    – Jamiec Mod
    Jun 15, 2016 at 7:32

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