Is there a way to send an email when a post is edited or deleted? Our group uses mailing list extensively (coming from a Google Groups background) and is heavily moderated. So a common pattern is that Person A posts, moderator deletes, and Person B replies to the deleted post by email, not realising it was deleted.
AI-generated summary
The discussion revolves around sending emails when a post is edited or deleted. Mark_Schmucker initially proposed this idea to address a common issue where users reply to deleted posts via email. However, pfaffman suggested increasing the time before emails are sent out as a simpler solution, and noted that email notifications on deletion could be noisy.
Codinghorror questioned the intent behind the deleted posts, but Mark_Schmucker clarified that the deleted posts are usually well-meaning but not adding value. Moderators are trying to reduce noise, and sending more emails on deletion could counter this effort. The discussion concludes that leveraging existing tools, such as wait time and post length, might be a better approach.
An easier solution would be to increase the time before emails are sent out so that the moderator could delete before sent out. (there is a system setting for that)
Email on delete would be noisy (an unwanted email generates multiple emails!) and require a plugin.
From my perspective this is working as designed. I have a question about intent. Are these incendiary troll posts designed to provoke a response? If so, the only advice you can give people is “don’t reply to troll posts”.
We have a similar issue on some sites where troll posts and all the replies to the troll posts get deleted as unavoidable collateral damage.
Also, how common is it to delete posts in this manner? We need a lot more context.
In our case, Person A is well-meaning and not a troll. Probably 90% of our deletions by mods are because the post does not add value and mods are trying to keep the noise down. For example, if Person A posts “Thanks Bob, I agree”, the mods delete the post and send Person A a canned PM on how a “like” or PM would be more appropriate.
As @pfaffman points out, sending more emails on deletion would add to the very noise they’re trying to reduce. So maybe this was a dumb idea and we should leverage existing tools, like wait time and post length. Are there other existing tools we should consider?