Viewing deleted articles Reopened for Discussion
A Wikipedia policy proposal to allow logged-in users to view deleted articles has been reopened for debate. First introduced in November 2004, and voted down by 45-38, the measure is scheduled to begin polling on October 1, 2007. Implementing VDA has been a major inclusionist policy goal since the AfD process' inception.
During the previous debate, RickK and others noted that copyright violations and other illegal content needed to remain inaccessible to the public. Another major objection is that allowing non-admins to continue reading deleting article encourages the posting of substandard content. Eloquence argued, "Trolls would be able to permanently view their trolling, hence build upon it and attract new trolls. This effect is visible on sites like Slashdot, where comments get not deleted but filtered -- the effect is that a troll community can grow and flourish."
Angela had noted, "To avoid the problem of having illegal but deleted content still available, you would need two levels of deletion, where you need another VfD to decide which deleted pages should not be viewable by everyone." The new proposal specifically addresses this, calling for developers to create two categories of deleted articles. The first would consist of copyvios and other content that would remain viewable only by non-vios. The second would be comprised of all other deleted content, and would be viewable to any logged-in user, perhaps after entering a CAPTCHA, in order to prevent access by robots.
Captain Zyrain reopened the issue for debate on September 17, arguing that the proposal would bring more transparency to the deletion review process and add convenience by allowing authors to userfy deleted articles without admin assistance. He expressed confidence that removing deleted articles from search engine listing would be sufficient to deter most trolls and said, "We can always try it for awhile and if it proves disruptive, deactivate the feature."