Woodpecker wrote:
I do not know what the mods rules are, but I think that while locking a thread means they want all discussion on a topic to halt when they make a thread vanish it a more serious matter. My understanding is that the "vanish into thin air" is reserved for super offensive things and such threads should not be restarted.
Yeah, that was my first thought too. But then I figured, "How can we figure out if a thread vanished due to mod intervention or something simple like the original poster withdrawing it? Or it being moved? Or a system glitch?" I certainly don't know how to find a moved, re-named thread; your method sounds good, but I'm not going to go searching through my last 300+ posts searching for something that may or may not be under a completely different title! I hope I'm not sounding offensive there, woodpecker, I've got nothing but respect for you.
Plus the fact that locked threads are explicitly mentioned in the rules, but missing threads are not. Add to that the fact that we're being allowed to talk about this (which is implicit approval).
Ultimately, it would be foolish to just yank the thread rather than leave it as an example to others who may want to post the same thing. If my thread was yanked, I'd be re-creating it assuming it was a glitch. If it was locked, I would know the score. Besides, it's not too tough to put "This is an attack on a member and will not be allowed" and delete all links and then it would sit there serving as an example to others as it died a slow death.
My money is on the scenario where this new, first post user wrote something out of jealousy and someone sent a PM and said, "Hey, that's not cool here" and they pulled it.
So after continued thought, it seemed to me that there are just too many ways a thread can disappear than to just assume that it means mods are super-ticked off. The main thrust of the rules is that we do not post things that are harmful or hurtful to other members. If we all keep that in mind, none of this locking or pulling (if that is what happened in this case) will matter.
Heck somebody PM a mod and find out. It's 103 today in Portland and I'm feeling lazy like a sun-baked gecko (no offense to any sun-baked geckos out there)