What guidelines does "Community" use to delete posts?

Question

I just came across this question relating to Captain Phillips (2013):

Why was the family's viewpoint not shown in the movie?

If you look at the revision history, it was twice deleted by "Community". The question seems sound to me, although granted no one had an answer to it for a year.

So, I'm just curious as to what guidelines "Community" uses to delete posts?

Answer 1

This is explained in this answer on the main meta, which was lately also added to the help center. To summarize it a bit, there are 3 different deletion periods with their respective criteria¹:

• >30 days old, <0 score, no answers.
• >365 days old, <1 score, no answers, low views, few comments.
• closed for >9 days, <1 score, unanswered in SE sense.

Your particular example was subject to the 2nd reason in that list. Unfortunately the only way to counter those mechanisms (which are in place for obvious quality reasons) when you feel they were unwarranted is to notify a moderator (or be one for that matter).

1) _{On our specific site this is extended by an additional deletion eligibility for inactive identification questions. But this isn't an automated process done by the Community user but rather a manual process done by the moderators.}