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The Election page shows an overview of all elections held for this stack, now that there's currently no election in progress.
The overview looks a bit off with two missing userboxes, since two former mods left this stack entirely.

A screenshot of the election overview page, with two missing userboxes

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    status-bydesign, I suspect. Deleted users' usernames don't show up anywhere as far as I know.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Feb 3, 2016 at 13:10
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    I agree, but that's the point of account deletion: nothing of the user is left visible, not even the name(s) they used to have. In the same way as nobody would know user8719 was called Jimmy Shelter, Darth Satan, Darth Melkor if we didn't all know him by reputation.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Feb 3, 2016 at 13:33
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    I do think it is a bug. It should say something to the effect that someone whose account no longer exists was elected, not show broken-image icons.
    – chirlu
    Feb 3, 2016 at 13:57

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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This has now been fixed.

The departed mods' names still don't show up, but the two tiny "missing user" icons have been enlarged to show that three moderators were elected in 2012 even though two have now left the site:

enter image description here

This seems to be the best solution that balances these users' desire for privacy with the natural wish to see them recognised as former moderators of this community.

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    I wonder if "Departed" is the best caption; it reads a bit like "deceased". How about "User Left"? Other than that, good solution.
    – SQB
    Feb 3, 2016 at 17:02
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    It made me instantly think of "dearly departed". +1 to the idea of having something clearer such as "user has requested removal"
    – Valorum
    Feb 3, 2016 at 18:44
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    I’ll third SQB and @Richard’s point. Departed sounds a tad over-dramatic. I would suggest “Deleted user” or “Deleted profile” instead, which is neutral and accurate. After all, it is not necessarily the case that a deleted account is the result of the user requesting removal or leaving—there are forced deletions as well (though I’ll admit I’ve never heard of a former mod being actually deleted—that’s usually limited to spammers and fake accounts).
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Feb 3, 2016 at 20:00
  • @JanusBahsJacquet - I can imagine no circumstances where a mod would be deleted. They're almost by definition high-rep users who will have contributed extensively. Even if SE don't want to keep the person, they'll certainly want to keep their content.
    – Valorum
    Feb 3, 2016 at 20:07
  • @Richard I may be conflating two types of account deletion here. Have Gilles’ and Keen’s accounts been completely deleted, so that all their answers and history are gone completely? Or have they just been ‘numerised’ like user8719? Or rather, is it only the former type of deletion that would trigger the “Departed” (or whatever) placeholder on the Election page? I had just assumed that both types of deletion would have that effect, and I do believe there are precedents to high-rep users being ‘numerised’ (not by their own request).
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Feb 3, 2016 at 20:13
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    "Have Gilles’ and Keen’s accounts been completely deleted, so that all their answers and history are gone completely?" This never happens, @JanusBahsJacquet; the content you've posted to the site is licensed to SE for use in perpetuity (section "Subscriber Content"). You can ask that your account be deleted, but the content remains.
    – jscs
    Feb 3, 2016 at 20:15
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    @Richard Pedantry compels me to point out that this isn't always the case, especially with pro-tem mods. I've seen mods with rep in the low hundreds and hardly any posts. But your point does stand: a user who's been a mod at any time is unlikely to be deleted against their will.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Feb 3, 2016 at 20:20
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    @JanusBahsJacquet Like Josh says, only their accounts are deleted (meaning any info about them as users); the content they've posted remains. As for what 'triggers' the Departed placeholder: I'd have to ask a CM, but I suspect that was custom-made; the only placeholder generated by the system was the tiny little thing shown in SQB's question.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Feb 3, 2016 at 20:28
  • Then I’m back to my initial point: although it’s quite unlikely, it could happen that a mod (or, perhaps more likely, a former mod) somehow warranted having his or her account deleted, for whatever reason. That’s the reason I figured it would be better to have a wording that doesn’t explicit state that the deletion of the user account was of their own choosing—having a neutral one that simply says the user account was deleted works equally well in either scenario.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Feb 3, 2016 at 20:36

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