[Archive]

Posted By: Joann

Leon has recently had a policy of lock and leave on threads that have become disruptive, and I think it's a good one. It allows the content to be preserved but stops the arguing. He also does a good job letting arguments run their full course before locking.

But there are cases that would justify deleting. The first that come to mind are the two recently where the original poster requested they be deleted and then deleted (himself) the content of the original post. Without the lead post the whole tread doesn't make sense, plus in this case the poster specifically requested it.

And extraordinary circumstances would also be a reason to delete. A few that come to my mind off the top of my head would be obscenity, trolls, threats of violence or posting of exhaustive personal information. By that I mean the scary stuff like address, phone number, family makeup and contact info, place of work - the kind of stuff that allows people to find someone or harass them more directly than online. I know we exchange similar info on BST xactions, but someone posting specifics about someone else - especially if there is fighting or threatening going on - should be deleted.

So I'm just rambling and saying that there are reasons to delete threads even in light of a general policy to lock but leave them intact. So far Leon's done a pretty good job of finding that line.

As much as I am against censorship in general, I think Leon is best situated (and maybe has the best temperament and sense of balance) to decide what constitutes an extraordinary circumstance.

Joann