On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 10:52:20 -0700, you wrote:
Deleting and starting over implies writing off the previous work. In fact, the it'd be really complicated to do otherwise since the GFDL requires attribution and in the case of deletion the edit history for the previous version is gone.
No, because the people doing the job are all admins so if something does get deleted (rather than blanked) it can get undeleted when the facts become clear, and everything should be visible to an admin in the deleted history.
If people need data and citations from the deleted history of an article I for one am quite happy to help. But I've only seen one example where a complete rewrite was necessary, and in that case what was deleted was grossly inaccurate as well as defamatory: a blank sheet was a better starting point.
Do you have an example to hand where an Office action has resulted in permanent loss of good content? Guy (JzG)