Wikipedia:Administrators' guide/Viewing deleted pages

Sometimes admins want to view a deleted page while participating at DRV or to answer a question as to why a page was deleted. Some admins choose to be administrators who will provide copies of deleted articles. Also, you might want to view deleted contributions of an editor as part of determining whether they are a sock puppet.

The viewing deleted pages procedure is a little tricky, but easy after one or two attempts. Nothing really happens when you view a deleted page, so there is no admin etiquette involved.

Below is a step by step guide on how to view a deleted page without actually restoring it. Follow the instructions through and view the deleted page as the guide says to practice.

[[Image:Admin mop.PNG|25px| ]]View a deleted page

 * 1) Open up the page you wish to see. For this, we will use Ryan Postlethwaite
 * 2) At the top of the Ryan Postlethwaite article page, you will see the heading "View or restore one deleted edit?", "View or restore 15 deleted edits?", or something similar depending on how many revisions there are. This is a page that all editors can see, but will not include the Page history, or the View or restore link.
 * 3) Click on the blue linked words "one deleted edit". That will bring you to a screen which shows the various now-deleted revisions. This is a page that only admins can see. As long as you don't actually click "restore" under Deletion log on this page, the deletion will remain in effect.
 * 4) Scroll down the page to where it says "Page history".
 * 5) Clicking on the blue linked date and time of one of those Page history revisions will bring up that particular deleted revision in an edit window. This should bring up the deleted article text to your screen in an edit window. If you would rather see it in normal view, choose "show preview".

[[Image:Admin mop.PNG|25px| ]]View a deleted image

 * 1) Open up the page you wish to see. For this, we will use File:London-james.jpg
 * 2) At the top of the File:London-james.jpg image page, you will see the heading "View or restore one deleted edit?", "View or restore 6 deleted edits?", or something similar depending on how many revisions there are. This is a page that all editors can see, but will not include the View or restore link.
 * 3) Click on the blue linked words " 6 deleted edits". That will bring you to a screen which shows the various now-deleted revisions. This is a page that only admins can see. As long as you don't actually click "restore" under Deletion log on this page, the deletion will remain in effect.
 * 4) Scroll down the page to where it says "Page history". These links provide access to the deleted text. This sometimes is used at DRV, for example, to confirm that proper deletion notices were delivered or to review the fair use statement
 * 5) Scroll down the page to where it says "File history".
 * 6) Clicking on the blue linked date and time of one of those File history revisions will bring up that particular deleted images.
 * 7) For practice, here are a few more images: (A) File:Ulf_Merbold.jpg, (B) File:My_Injury.jpg, (C) File:Regenerator_love.gif, (D) File:Leona.JPG.

[[Image:Admin mop.PNG|25px| ]]View deleted contributions of an editor

 * 1) Open up the page you wish to see. For this, we will use this banned user.
 * 2) At the left of the page is a toolbox containing a "User contributions" link. Click on the "User contributions" link. This should bring up the User contributions page for Archtransit.
 * 3) At the top of the User contribution page is the string "For Archtransit (talk | change block | unblock | block log | uploads | logs | deleted user contributions | user rights management | filter log)".
 * 4) Select the blue "deleted user contributions" link. That should bring up the deleted contributions of that editor.

Oversight
The MediaWiki software also allows edits to be permanently hidden beyond even the grasp of most administrators. This is typically done when an edit is judged to have likely exposed the Wikimedia Foundation to legal jeopardy. Such well-hidden edits are referred to as having been "oversighted"; see Hiding revisions for further details.