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The following post has been deleted and I still want to refer to the information (it is in my favorites)

How long will I be able to see this post until it is permanently purged?

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In the entire history of Stack Exchange, I've only ever seen two posts that have been permanently purged. One was the "boat programming" one. The other was a very contentious "how do compilers work" question. Both questions were asked on Stack Overflow; neither should have been purged IMHO.

AFAIK it is SE's policy to keep deleted records forever (my two examples notwithstanding). But there's not a lot of information in the post you referenced; it would be easy enough to copy it somewhere, just in case.

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    Thank you... actually I was wondering a few months ago where that boat programming Q was, so I could remember why it was so popular in the early days. I guess I'll never know.
    – makerofthings7
    Aug 20, 2013 at 23:58
  • It's a shame, really. The principals considered it a question asked in bad faith. Of course, now we have football spammers, Sumar, Goma and other far more disruptive individuals to worry about.
    – Robert Harvey
    Aug 21, 2013 at 0:00
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    I don't have any background on Sumar and Goma... not sure what that refers to . I've been off this site after the scope was changed refined and I got left out of the new mindset. (on a boat you might say)
    – makerofthings7
    Aug 21, 2013 at 0:02
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    Goma is this site's most notorious troll. He's currently eating a suspension until 2017.
    – user28988
    Aug 21, 2013 at 0:04
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    Ironically, the boat programming question was the subject of a Stack Exchange blog entry. It was chosen as the favorite question asked during that period, until they realized that it was a joke question. Then they burned it with the fire of a thousand suns. This is the only remnant that is left.
    – Robert Harvey
    Aug 21, 2013 at 0:05
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    Just a sidenote: While questions do not get purged from the database, as Robert noted, occasionally a revision (or two) that has private information will get purged upon request (yes, people sometimes post their passwords and credit card information on a public site on the internet).
    – yannis
    Aug 21, 2013 at 8:15
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    @makerofthings7 For more about the boat question (including a copy of the question), you can see this MSO post: What is the boat programming meme about?
    – Rachel
    Aug 22, 2013 at 17:13
  • @Rachel: All of the decent mirrors of the question died a long time ago. WebArchive only captured some of the text. Unless you know of a link that contains the entire post; that would be really cool. :)
    – Robert Harvey
    Aug 22, 2013 at 17:15
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    Here is one archive: web.archive.org/web/20100426125115/http://www.mattmcdole.com/…
    – makerofthings7
    Aug 22, 2013 at 17:25
  • @makerofthings7: That's basically the same one that is linked at the post Rachel linked. Are you seeing any pictures? Maybe they're getting blocked here.
    – Robert Harvey
    Aug 22, 2013 at 17:33
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    @RobertHarvey archive.org doesn't save images at all due to storage requirements
    – Izkata
    Aug 24, 2013 at 2:52

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