title: Rails - Soft Delete or Archive for active and non active data
body: <p>I have read a lot about soft deletes and archive and saw all the pros and cons.  I'm still confused on which approach would work best for my situation.  I'll use the concept of posts and comments to see if I can explain it a bit easier</p>
  
  <pre><code>Post -&gt; Comments
  Post.all
  
  Outside RSS Feeds -&gt; Post -&gt; Comments
  RSSFeed.posts (Return the ones that are deleted or not)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Post gets "deleted" but I need the posts still accessible from say an RSS Feed but not the admin of the application.  </p>
  
  <p>I hear a lot of headaches with soft deletes but think it might make the most sense for my application and feel if I use Archive then I would have to run multiple queries</p>
  
  <pre><code>RSSFeed.posts || RSSFeed.archived_posts  
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>not sure which would be more efficient or more a pain in the @$$.  Thoughts or examples?  I know this example sounds stupid but trying to think of multiple situations that could be used to figure out which way to go.</p>