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What are the opinions about reposting a question that come up with the discovery of a new algorithm, but had to be deleted because an "interested party" wanted to do some checking before deciding on the confidentiality.
Now the check has been done and no objections against publication were raised.

My question is whether I should repost the question (back then it got upvotes)?

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    $\begingroup$ The way it sounds, it would be better to undelete the original question (assuming it is your question and your deletion). Can you post a link (for those who can see it)? $\endgroup$
    – Emil Jeřábek
    Commented Jun 20, 2015 at 15:59
  • $\begingroup$ The description does not seem to suggest that it is an on topic question anyway, but I suppose that can be decided and dealt with in the usual way when the question is asked or undeleted. $\endgroup$
    – Tobias Kildetoft
    Commented Jun 20, 2015 at 16:23
  • $\begingroup$ @EmilJeřábek unfortunately the link has already vanished, so I would have to rewrite it again; essentially it was about solving a least squares problems for very large point sets (surface fit) that sacrificed global optimality for other advantages. $\endgroup$
    – Manfred Weis
    Commented Jun 20, 2015 at 17:18
  • $\begingroup$ You might try mathoverflow.net/users/recently-deleted-questions/31310 , but unfortunately the list only retains questions not older than a month or so. (That is, links to questions don’t truly vanish, and an author of a deleted question as well as 10k users can access it. The problem is that the question ID is next to impossible to guess.) $\endgroup$
    – Emil Jeřábek
    Commented Jun 20, 2015 at 17:57
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    $\begingroup$ Moderators see your deleted questions on your profile essentially just like normal questions. It would be only little effort for them to give you the link or to just undelete. $\endgroup$
    – user9072
    Commented Jun 20, 2015 at 18:17
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    $\begingroup$ Could it have been this? mathoverflow.net/questions/168889/… $\endgroup$
    – Todd Trimble Mod
    Commented Jun 21, 2015 at 1:56
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    $\begingroup$ @ToddTrimble Yes, that is it; could you please undelete it? $\endgroup$
    – Manfred Weis
    Commented Jun 21, 2015 at 5:01
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    $\begingroup$ Done (plus more characters). $\endgroup$
    – Todd Trimble Mod
    Commented Jun 21, 2015 at 12:57
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks a lot Todd! $\endgroup$
    – Manfred Weis
    Commented Jun 21, 2015 at 19:13

1 Answer 1

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In general to undelete the original, possibly making an edit, seems the better option. (Note however that revisions are usually preserved, so if some confidential material really needs to be removed this might not be an option, at least not without some extra step.)

While it can be difficult to keep access to deleted content, almost all deletions of posts are only soft-deletions and can be undone.

To keep track of a question, it suffices to bookmark the URL of the question; it can be a good idea to do so before self-deleting something one might need later.

In case of difficulty, our moderators, which have better access to deleted content, are likely willing to help.

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  • $\begingroup$ I summarized the comments as the meta-question seems like one somebody else might have too. $\endgroup$
    – user9072
    Commented Jun 26, 2015 at 14:21

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