What are the mysterious Post Replacements? Who can use it and in which cases? I can't find any help topic on this. The link to it is also on every post page under the "History" section.

As I guess this is something that allows to replace the file of the post. But if it's true, then why old inferior posts are still being deleted, when they could have just be replaced? Such feature would be useful, because I think it's better to replace the post instead of deleting it, as it would preserve score, comments, tag history, avatars, sets, etc. At the moment the post replacement feature looks very underused.

If I was to guess, it's because there currently isn't any sort of approval queue for post replacements. The old image is simply replaced with a new one. This makes this tool vulnerable to vandalism.

This is why only admins seem to be able to use it.

So if you find a larger version of an image and you give it to an admin they can replace the file without you needing to post it and flag the old one?

bitwolfy said:
If I was to guess, it's because there currently isn't any sort of approval queue for post replacements. The old image is simply replaced with a new one. This makes this tool vulnerable to vandalism.

This is why only admins seem to be able to use it.

Okay, but it still doesn't explain when it's used. When a better quality version of the post is found, the old one is being deleted with the annotation to the new one. Why not to replace it instead?

bitWolfy said:
If I was to guess, it's because there currently isn't any sort of approval queue for post replacements. The old image is simply replaced with a new one. This makes this tool vulnerable to vandalism.

This is why only admins seem to be able to use it.

Yep.

Odisaodi said:
So if you find a larger version of an image and you give it to an admin they can replace the file without you needing to post it and flag the old one?

Correct.

ebea57 said:
Okay, but it still doesn't explain when it's used.

On request.

millcore said:
On request.

That seems very inconvenient to do. Both for the user and admin. I mean sending a DM with a file to an admin to ask for replacement, then admin needs to read the message, go to the post, download the received file and upload again?

I hope this is just a temporary solution and there will be something that will standardize and simplify the whole procedure. Something like post flag or report, so user can select the post, provide a new file, then the request goes to a queue and admin either approve or decline it.

Are there any plans to open up the Replacements feature to "trusted" users? The current system of deleting old posts and reuploading is pretty sloppy, so it's a pity to see a good feature like this go underutilised.

jockjamdoorslam said:
Are there any plans to open up the Replacements feature to "trusted" users? The current system of deleting old posts and reuploading is pretty sloppy, so it's a pity to see a good feature like this go underutilised.

I'd think enabling it for contributors would be a safe enough option, since they don't have to go through the approval queue anyway. It would still only be a half-measure though since there's only a few contributors and everybody else will still have to do the reupload and flag method.

millcore said:
On request.

How would I actually request a replacement, Discord chat?

faucet said:
I'd think enabling it for contributors would be a safe enough option, since they don't have to go through the approval queue anyway. It would still only be a half-measure though since there's only a few contributors and everybody else will still have to do the reupload and flag method.

I agree, contributors and/or janitors would be a safe bet

shadyguy said:
How would I actually request a replacement, Discord chat?

You can directly message an admin on site, by clicking on their profiles and selecting "Send message" on the top.
Then, just provide a link to the larger image and the post that you want to replace.