# Search auto-complete should assist in finding posts by deactivated users

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-auto-complete-should-assist-in-finding-posts-by-deactivated-users/72278
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [17 Outubro , 2017 14:28 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-auto-complete-should-assist-in-finding-posts-by-deactivated-users/72278 "2017-10-17T14:28:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![mcwumbly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mcwumbly/32/103861_2.png) [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [17 Outubro , 2017 14:28 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-auto-complete-should-assist-in-finding-posts-by-deactivated-users/72278/1 "2017-10-17T14:28:47Z")

</div>

When a user has been deactivated, they can no longer be @mentioned in a post (the pop-up does not help with auto-completion). This makes sense to a large degree, as that user will not be notified. (That said, it could be argued that it’s still be nice to be able to _reference_ them easily via a mention and perhaps find some other way to indicate they are no longer active.)

But in the case of _search_ I have found myself often wishing I could more easily find posts from users who have been deactivated.

Search does properly filter to posts by a deactivated user if you type the user name perfectly, but it’s much more difficult to do that without auto-complete.

I think it’d make sense to have search assist with autocompletion here by default (a refinement would be that it only works if the user has made any posts).