And in the past, weren't deleted posts more obvious ?
They were. It showed that a post had been edited. However, what precisely the edit was, what got changed or deleted, was impossible to know.
If OVM had
EDIT : If OVM hadn't
END EDIT
posted that he had deleted his post who would know ?
The moderators would know. With the new software, a complete history of all edits to a post is available to the moderators. In addition to the Edit, Report, Bookmark and other links at the bottom of a post, moderators have a History link where previous edits can be viewed and compared.
This lets an experienced poster do a drive by and hide the evidence if he wants.
My thoughts on that are, you should have the freedom to say whatever you want within the constraints of the Code of Conduct, and the same freedom extends to retracting whatever statements you make. This is important for several reasons, including that it might be off topic or after reflection you simply change your mind.
On the other hand, an experienced poster attempting a trolling drive-by that causes a disruption, and then goes back to try and hide the evidence, especially if they feign ignorance or deny they posted it, will very likely have their edits restored.
There's nothing wrong with changing your mind on something. But to make a statement or take a position on something, get responses to the post, then decide you don't like the responses so you go back and edit the original to be something else entirely and then do a
"I don't know what you people are talking about," is in and of itself a disruption to the forums. I think the simplest way to deal with that is to call them on it and embarrass them by resurrecting the edit history. Other options for repeat offenders would be official warnings with points, and/or removing their ability to edit their own posts. Fortunately that's not much an an issue here.