Comment by dpark
9 hours ago
> Soft delete isn’t language used by users so it should not be used by engineers when making product facing decisions.
Users generally don’t even know what a database record is. There is no reason that engineers should limit their discussions of implementation details to terms a user might use.
> “Delete” “archive” “hide” are the type of actions a user typically wants, each with their own semantics specific to the product.
Users might say they want “delete”, but then also “undo”, and suddenly we’re talking about soft delete semantics.
> A flag on the row, a separate table, deleting a row, these are all implementation options that should be led by the product.
None of these are terms an end user would use.
> Users might say they want “delete”, but then also “undo”, and suddenly we’re talking about soft delete semantics.
I've worked for a company where some users managed very personal informations on behalf of other users, like, sometimes, very intimate data and I always fought product on soft deletion.
Users are adults, and when part of their job is being careful with the data _they_ manage and _they_ are legally responsible for, I don't feel like the software owes them anything else than a clear information about what is going to happen when they click on "CONFIRM DELETION".
"Archive" is a good pattern for those use cases. It's what have been used for decades for OS "Recycle Bin". Why not call it Delete if you really want to but in this case, bring a user facing "Recycle Bin" interface and be clear than anything x days old will be permanently deleted.