On mar, 2002-03-26 at 16:56, Jimmy Wales wrote:
The issue of deletion is that administrative deletion, unlike deletion by an end user who merely blanks the content of the page is (a) irreversible, in that the history is deleted as well and
I've checked in the beginnings of the semi-permanent delete code to the CVS repository; a deleted page will still be kept hidden in the history (old) table until it is removed by a (not yet implemented) periodic sweep of unlinked histories or restored by another trusted user using the (also not yet implemented) page undeletion tool.
Jimbo, I'd feel better about all this if you could install that on the running machine when you have a chance. I don't expect anyone to abuse their delete priviledges deliberately, but there may be disagreements over appropriateness or accidental deletions (I'm sure I'm not the only one who's hit a "yes, I'm sure" button automatically before noticing that I'd been asked about something other than what I had intended!). There's also the possibility of vandals breaking into someone's account (think of insecure passwords, or leaving the login cookie open on a public machine...), and I'd prefer that potential damage be minimized.
(b) beneficial, in that it turns the page back into a nonexistent state so that links to it will not indicate incorrectly that the page exists.
Of course, it's even better to add actual content yourself. :)
Administrative deletes should be reserved for mere uncontroversial typos that don't serve any useful function, and for really awful vandalism that shouldn't exist on the site. It should also exist for copyright violations! If someone puts copyrighted material on the site, we have to delete it bigtime.
Would it be useful to have a single-version delete? ie, the ability to drop a single old version of a page from the database, leaving in its place a notice of removal. That way, gross vandalism (copyrighted or illegal material) put into an existing article could be cleanly removed from the database without going so far as to delete the whole article history.
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)