What Is The "Reason For Deletion" Option For?

[Woodsprite]

"Reason for editing" makes sense; tell people why you've edited you message. But "reason for deletion" obviously means that the message hasn't really been deleted, but rather hidden from public view. So my question is, why does there need to be an option like this for deleting a message if the only people who can read it are moderators/administrators?

Been wondering this for a while. I've seen it in all sorts of forums, but never really thought to ask about it.

[Human No More]

There is an option to make deletion notices visible ('this post has been deleted by x) and you can change who can see them, in which case the reason will be shown.

[Woodsprite]

Is this option available in the User CP? Because I can't find it on the text editor with any other post. I just have the two choices of whether or not to delete the message, the "Reason for deletion" box, and the "Delete message" button. I looked everywhere else but that's all I could find.

[Human No More]

No, it's an admin set option per usergroup. Most forums have it disabled because often it just creates 'what did X say, why was it deleted?'.