It is interesting to learn something from the horse's mouth regarding Audiogon's thread deletion policy. I did not realize that threads would be deleted on a schedule or due to inactivity, or because of automatically detected types of content such as email addresses.
There have, of course, been more than a few threads deleted at Audiogon's option because of other reasons having to do with content that's perceived as being controversial or possibly liability-inducing. IMO, some of those threads should not have been deleted either, but when they are, no warning, explanation, opportunity to comment, or official apology is given, and I have always found that practice to be essentially disrespectful towards the participating members and the work and time they've invested contributing to the deleted thread.
An example is the recent deletion of the "America's Tragedy" thread, likely due to an exchange near its end that I was involved in, which contained potentially controversial political opinions. This thread generated hundreds of posts, and was originally started by Audiogon as a response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01.
As a member who has generally supported a permanently archived and uncensored forum within the legal and common-sense limits of slander, personal or group insults, or otherwise intentional malfeasance or misrepresentation, I found it particularly disturbing that I might have been partly responsible for the deletion of an epic thread, especially one freighted with such emotional and historical baggage as that. Since there have even been past instances where threads were deleted despite each post's supposedly being moderated and OK'ed before getting added to the thread, and instances where similar exchanges on separate threads have invited deletion of one thread but not the other, it's not always possible to know in advance when you may be crossing the line.
My specific question to Audiogon today is, Why do whole threads have to be deleted in cases where clearly only a certain post or posts (often the latest additions) didn't pass muster? Why can't just the offending posts be deleted while continuing to retain the archived thread?
