For 10K+ who can see deleted answers it's rather distracting and throwing off a bit seeing deleted answers in between the accepted answer and the next non-deleted answer specially when I'd still like the default (sort by activity order):

This is what I mean its throwing me off when scolling a page with multiple answers where some happen to be deleted:

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It's great that 10K+ can actually see the deleted ones but please shift them all the way to the bottom of the page.

Alternatively, maybe those could be hidden like comments are when there are too many of them and there could be a link saying something like: there are 2 deleted answers, click here to view them?

What do you guys think?

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    Meh, I rarely find this to be an issue. – Martijn Pieters Nov 17 '14 at 9:34
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    I never once found a good reason to view answers ordered by activity. Click the tab labeled "votes" and deleted answers are always at the bottom. – Hans Passant Nov 17 '14 at 9:45
  • @HansPassant "disregard of the order by settings". What do you think about the alternative option? – user2140173 Nov 17 '14 at 9:45
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    Maybe it is easy for them to implement. I can never turn off the "should they really be working on this?" concern. – Hans Passant Nov 17 '14 at 10:19
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    @MartijnPieters I am not saying it's really an issue. It's not a bug. It's not something that requires immediate attention. I just believed it would improve the UI a bit. – user2140173 Nov 17 '14 at 10:23
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    This is so needed for things like the CodeGolf sandbox. I like the idea of collapsing deleted answers rather than making them disappear. – Justin Nov 18 '14 at 1:18
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    Possible duplicate of Removing deleted answers from view – Deduplicator Dec 25 '15 at 17:25
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    @Deduplicator we're duping in the wrong direction. – approxiblue Dec 25 '15 at 22:55

I agree with the second option. Deleted answers are usually noise, and there is no point in displaying them. They are useful in very specific situations, usually in case of meta discussions, when either you have a link to the deleted post, or are specifically looking for one that is deleted.

When I'm on SO, I can be in one of 3 modes: 1) contributor 2) janitor 3) user. For the first two, deleted answers might be useful, but really aren't needed so badly to always show them.

In case of the "user mode", they make SO look ugly. They remind me of an eternal building site, I feel like I'm always "at work".

If they would've been hidden, we could have some feeling of accomplishment - the site would look tidy, because we've cleaned it up!

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    ++ I agree with your view on the second option. SO is trying to look tidy and the deleted answers just add noise... There needs o be an option to opt out of seeing those by default. Not everyone here is to moderate or to dig what and why has been deleted. – user2140173 Nov 17 '14 at 14:50

This creates the problem in which it becomes more difficult to tell how the question progressed. If the most recent activity on the question was that deleted answer, and you throw it all the way at the bottom of ten other answers, then you're not being displayed an accurate representation of what has been happening on that question.

The votes tab is quite a bit different, though. It's the default tab that all users start on, and votes themselves indicate usefulness to the viewers. A deleted answer is not particularly useful to anyone as it is generally deleted because it was not useful or didn't answer the question, which is why they get thrown down at the bottom when you're viewing that tab.

As far as hiding the deleted answers: that is a far more reasonable request and something similar has been suggested before to attempt to minimize the screen real estate that deleted answers take up.

  • the linked question definitely needs more recognition. I've started a bounty to draw some. – user2140173 Nov 17 '14 at 18:30

Honestly, deleted answser do not really bother me. They are immediately identified as such, and I read them generally with the same interest I give to negatively voted answers : where is the end of that ?

More exactly, as I generally read answers in votes order, they are genererally near the end and I hardly reach them. The only case where I read them is for a question with few answers, and then I do prefere see them immediately.

And anyway, unless it is a really light developpement, IMHO the gain is not worth the cost.

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