G'day Phil,
<snip />
If however Brion's new feature (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Bitfields_for_rev_deleted) gets working, it would be feasible to do all deletions the same way, in which case those revisions would become accessible.
HTH HAND
It does indeed help, and my day wasn't bad, either. It had not occurred to me that there would be a significant technical barrier to the proposal (although it should have).
Thanks.
-- Mark Gallagher "What? I can't hear you, I've got a banana on my head!" - Danger Mouse