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Removed Post Manager

Retire WordPress content with a restorable status and answer 410 Gone for all its URLs.

by overthinq · github.com/overthinq/wp-removed-post-manager

★ 0stars

Install

Download source zip No release zip yet

This is the repository archive. It installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow.

Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/overthinq/wp-removed-post-manager/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
No built-in updater. New versions won't appear under Dashboard → Updates. Install new releases yourself, or let Git Updater track the repository.
Readme github.com/overthinq/wp-removed-post-manager ↗

Retire WordPress content without deleting it. A removed post keeps its data and can be restored, while its URLs answer 410 Gone, telling search engines the content is gone for good rather than missing by mistake.

Built for editorial sites pruning old or unwanted content after an audit.

Features

  • A Rimosso post status, with row and bulk actions in every public post type list. The previous status, date and author are recorded; restoring returns the post to its previous status.
  • 410 for every URL the post had: its permalink at removal, extra URLs from an import, and old permalinks saved by Slim SEO.
  • Manual 410s for URLs that no longer have a post, for example articles deleted before the plugin was installed. Deleting removed content for good keeps its 410s as manual entries.
  • One table holds every 410 path with a unique index, so each 404 costs a single indexed lookup.
  • Bulk import by URL or post ID from Strumenti → Contenuti rimossi or WP-CLI, with a dry run. URLs without content are reported, not guessed.
  • A searchable list of all 410s with CSV export.

How the 410 is served

Request Response
URL of removed content 410
Old slug of removed content 410, instead of core's redirect to /?p=ID
Manual 410 410
Same URL with an explicit redirect in an SEO or redirect plugin the redirect

Removed posts are not public, so their URLs are already 404s: the check runs only on 404 requests. It hooks template_redirect at priority 9, after manual redirects (Slim SEO uses priority 1) and before automatic "old URL" redirects, which would send removed content to its plain /?p=ID permalink.

The response keeps WordPress's 404 handling with a 410 status, so classic and block themes show their own 404 template. To customise it, add a 410.php template to the theme. It can read the removed post ID with get_query_var( 'rpm_removed_post' ) (0 for manual 410s). The body class is error410.

Overlap with SEO plugins

Redirect managers can also answer 410 for a URL: Slim SEO's does, for example. That covers the manual 410 list. What they don't provide is a post status that keeps removed content restorable and serves 410 for all its URLs. Use whichever you prefer for URL-only rules; an explicit redirect always wins over this plugin's 410.

Setup

Requires WordPress 6.8+ and PHP 8.3+.

  1. Copy wp-removed-post-manager into wp-content/plugins and activate it.
  2. Remove content from the post list, or import a list in Strumenti → Contenuti rimossi.

Removed content is managed by users who can edit it. Manual 410s apply to the whole site and require edit_others_posts.

WP-CLI

wp removed-posts import removed.csv --user=1 --dry-run
wp removed-posts import removed.csv --user=1 --missing-file=missing.txt
wp removed-posts restore --post-type=any --user=1

The CSV's first column holds URLs or post IDs; a url header is optional.

Hooks

Filter Purpose
removed_post_manager_post_types Post types that can be removed (default: public types with UI, except attachments).
removed_post_manager_removed_paths URLs recorded as 410 when a post is removed.

Uninstalling

Restore removed content first (wp removed-posts restore --post-type=any): without the plugin, WordPress no longer recognises the status. Data stays in the database: post meta prefixed _rpm_, the rpm_gone table of 410 paths and the rpm_db_version option.