Bug: the ability to change tags to previous states on a deleted post, via the "revert" option in the tag history

Expected behavior: tags remain how they were immediately before the post was deleted, through the lack of an edit button.

Actual behavior: tags being able to be edited to previous states, regardless of when the image was deleted.

Instructions to replicate: go to a deleted post, example , and click the tags link under "history". Click the state you want (not the post # link, user link, etc.) and the state will turn dark green. Click the revert button underneath, and it will revert the tags on the post to the state you selected.

The example I provided should show you what happened, but in case I missed any details I can try to answer anything else about it. The tags cannot be completely edited, but they can be effected nonetheless.

Additionally you can edit the tags on deleted posts through the API just fine.

Chessax said:
Additionally you can edit the tags on deleted posts through the API just fine.

I was about to say "how did you do that?"...

Siral_Eurgh-xan said:
I was about to say how did you do that...

Aw, totally a missed moment to wave my hands, and with a dramatic voice announce: Magic!

That's not a bug, deleted posts are pretty much just like normal ones, it's just that anybody below Janitor can't see the actual submission and comments.

NotMeNotYou said:
That's not a bug, deleted posts are pretty much just like normal ones, it's just that anybody below Janitor can't see the actual submission and comments.

Then are we allowed to edit them, or not? There are a bunch of disambiguation tags on deleted posts that I'd like to fix, but I can't seem to fix them.

NotMeNotYou said:
That's not a bug, deleted posts are pretty much just like normal ones, it's just that anybody below Janitor can't see the actual submission and comments.

While true, it still doesn't make sense that you can edit tags with the API while the HTTP version hides the interface. Also what would be the reason to be able to edit tags (in any way) on something you can't see? I can see how Janitor+ should be able to, but for everyone else...

Siral_Eurgh-xan said:
Then are we allowed to edit them, or not? There are a bunch of disambiguation tags on deleted posts that I'd like to fix, but I can't seem to fix them.

forum #142974, forum #159089
I do it when some silly long typos cluttering tag list's search result.

ZaSigma4 said:
forum #142974, forum #159089
I do it when some silly long typos cluttering tag list's search result.

Still kinda odded out that it is not innately available, but thank you nonetheless.

Now then, am I allowed to fix those tags for disambiguationing?

Siral_Eurgh-xan said:
Still kinda odded out that it is not innately available, but thank you nonetheless.

Now then, am I allowed to fix those tags for disambiguationing?

Try searching for id:xyz status:deleted and then change the mode to "edit tags".

Furrin_Gok said:
Try searching for id:xyz status:deleted and then change the mode to "edit tags".

Well, I tried it, and it doesn't look like I'll be able to fix those tags so easily. /grumble...

To a janitor or up, was this the correct disambiguation? I won't fuck with the tags, just humoring myself by reading tags to determine the image.

Siral_Eurgh-xan said:
Well, I tried it, and it doesn't look like I'll be able to fix those tags so easily. /grumble...

To a janitor or up, was this the correct disambiguation? I won't fuck with the tags, just humoring myself by reading tags to determine the image.

Here's the file no I did not guess the md5 :P

But what did you expect? How are you supposed to be able to tag something you cannot see, most of the time you cannot use other tags to infer another tag, because the tags may either be wrong, or in this case, that you simply have someone posing in a bikini on a pool table. Either way you can't really remove the disambiguation tag to fix any annoying tag count anyway, since it's a perfectly valid, but ambiguous tag.

---

Wouldn't it be better to fix the problems, i.e. incorrect listing and tallying of tags on deleted posts, rather than trying to continuously clean up the symptoms? (for the record I thought at least tag counts were working just slow to update, but I guess I was wrong)

Additionally I imagine tag vandalism on deleted posts is a lot harder to spot. Would anyone notice if 1000 users nuked all tags (or simply changed some tags) on all deleted posts over, lets say, a month? That would only give a modest tag edit count of just above 100 per user. However this is probably quite unlikely.

Well, I wish to point out that I was right, they are in a swimming pool, but this is kinda my point: I don't think anyone less than a janitor should be able to edit tags, and I don't think deleted images should count for tags. The reason why I'm slightly peeved is this can be beneficial if you clean posts that are paid content, since in at most 2 years they can be undeleted. It's obviously a minor problem, though.

For the vandalism part, admins and users can see your tag count rise, and if anyone notices you vandalizing tags, they can report you for it, regardless of if it's on a approved or deleted post. Of course, that requires you to be previously viewing their page, and you to suspect them to be fucking with the tags in the first place, over fixing them as what can be assumed. Obviously, paranoia and preemptive vigilance is used in those cases, so it is not an immediate spot and stop case.

Yeah, that was probably a bit passive-aggressive, sorry about that. But I agree, editing tags on deleted posts definitely has both pros and cons.

My peeve is that editing can be done in some ways and not in others; it should either be allowed, or not allowed, not something in between, it reminds me of security holes, or rather security through obscurity... I'd argue towards not allowing it, but I guess either works.

But returning to the vandalism: The problem with my example is just that people normally don't look at deleted posts, so it's much harder for the general user base to detect and since a hundred tag edits is not unusual I doubt you will get much attention from that either. But since the posts are deleted at least the incentive for intentional vandalism is probably a lot lower.

But most of the problems with editing deleted posts could probably be solved fairly easily with a tag history filter (or dedicated page) to show only changes for deleted posts. Since deleted posts should normally get next to zero tag changes it would be easy to monitor. Same thing about descriptions.

What definitely shouldn't be allowed is creating/editing notes (though haven't tried if that works).