Being a moderator, people contact me from time to time wondering why their post was deleted. This happens relatively unfrequently, but I think it affects everyone more or less. See, getting your message deleted feels like a slap in the face for most users, and that's not the way it should be.
When you're a moderator, you get to see all of the deleted posts, because they're never really deleted and can be restored. Along with this you get to see the reason for deletion. Problem is, as a regular user can't see the post, they also can't see the reason. (This is also why people like me never give reasons)

My suggestion is simple: let the users see their own deleted posts. This will make them learn from their mistakes (giving moderators a reason to give a reason), stop treating moderators as hostile, and know who to contact if they have questions.

Do you want users to see it the same way we do (before clicking "View post")?

That would be great. I am no lmod so I dont get complaints, but I see how this would be helpful.

Yes, just without the "manage" button.
It would probably be really easy to implement, too.

I suggested something like this in the past, there were many "supported", even by mods and by one or two GMs, but nothing happened. If site devs don't read those suggestions and don't give us some feedback, would be difficult to make something happen.

valid point, but the number of "supports" is completely irrelevant to whether an idea gets implemented or not. /L

Anyways, yes, I support this. I don't find useful to give a reason to deleted posts if only other mods can see it. Members should see their deleted posts in the way mods do, with the reason clearly stated under it.

Or do what Zelda does and send a PM when you delete posts

Zelda's forum doesn't have nearly the same amount of deleted posts as for example this one does. Also discussion rules are less clear and it's pretty rare that a post gets deleted.

The reason for post deletion is meant mostly to be an aid to other moderators, if for whatever reason the post's deletion gets called into review. However, outright deletion of posts should be fairly rare: if you find yourself deleting a large number of posts, please provide reasons as notes to your fellow moderators, but also please inform the user somehow.

I do understand that most lmods do not have infraction permissions, but for those who do, providing a warning along with deleting the posts is wonderful for documenting why the post was deleted and what the user should avoid doing in the future.

For the lmods that don't have infraction permissions, remember that the PM feature exists, and that communicating with users is generally more effective than deleting huge swathes of posts for being terrible.

I don't think you understand the number of posts that doesn't hold the standard in this board. A lot of new people come to this board first because of how rare it is to have a forum like this, where people can feel like they're part of the development.
The other thing is that people don't read rules, and the general respect for this board is pretty low.
All this leads up to a lot of sub-par posts that don't do any good for the discussion.
My reasoning for deleting those posts is mainly to let people who are interested in making quality posts not have to scroll past 10 pages of junk.

Sending a private message everytime I delete a post is simply too much to ask of a single (active) moderator. I have a life beyond this forum.

I do pm users if they do any serious/repeated offense.

I recall some other vbulletin forums having a middle-ground option for deleted posts; normal users could see that a post had been deleted, and the comment why, but they could not view the post. How come that path has not been chosen for the TB community?

Well, I don't PM everyone, and it isn't really to prevent people repeatedly braking the rules so often. I just worry about the discussion board seeming unapproachable because of all its rules and stuff. The discussion board can get pretty quiet sometimes and I would like to see more activity on it, so trying to be helpful in PM is part of that. If I was moderating a board which suffered from an excess of activity I would probably do the opposite and start posting slightly overly critical mod-messages to try to deter shit-posters a bit and thin activity.

So, to me, this is not so much a matter of saving lmods time as it is a way to make the forum more accessible and enjoyable for the members who inhabit it. I can't really say since I haven't been bothered with much more than the discussion board for quite a long time now, and I am familiar enough with the rules of other boards to work out why my posts are deleted on my own.