I see threads get locked for a variety of reasons, but have any been completely removed for reasons OTHER than being old and not posted to in a while?
Yes, mainly for sick subject matter.
I was wondering if they’ve ever moderated a forum post-by-post like the “thanks for posting” message suggests sometimes happens.
I remember there being a completely innocent post in GQ - about the HeMan cartoon theme song, I beleive - that got deleted after a few, also completely innocent, replies, because the OP was a sock or something. This was sometime within the past year. I never did understood why the thread was deleted and not locked…
I think some have been deleted fairly quickly for illegal subject matter (I know posts have, but I think I remember a thread or two getting deleted for the same reasons).
Similarly, I know posts have been deleted because of coming from previously-banned posters. The same happens to threads, at times (though I can’t think of any off the top of my head, the one mentioned by Lunatic13 sounds like such a thread). I don’t know for sure, but I’d imagine that it’s because certain ex-posters become such a nuisance that it’s easier to just get rid of the threads all-together. I think that there have been some trouble-makers who keep on starting similar threads when they come back. If it were left open, those who recognize the poster might get upset or start Pit threads about it. Probably just easier to end it before it begins.
If I know that a thread was started by a sock, I’m quite likely to remove the thread. Socks want to be heard. I’ve also deleted old threads from ATMB and MPSIMS simply because they were extremely outdated. For instance, a lot of “I’m having problems” threads in ATMB have no real value, so I deleted them. Similarly, most of the threads dealing with the UBBS stuff has very little value, since we are now using vBulletin. I left an old HTML tutorial, though, even though we don’t allow HTML in posts, because it is a VERY informative thread.
Excuse me, but what’s a sock? I’ve got the hang of hijackers and trolls, along with why there are posts with BANNED written at the side, but not this. Is it a banned poster back with a new (or old) email address?
Sorry for the slight diversion (hijack?) here.
Sock and Puppet are short for Sock Puppet, a sock used as a handpuppet. As in Puppet Government.
On any message board, a sock is a second, third, … user name. Some boards officially allow them, some don’t.
Sometimes used as a “trial balloon” to say things that might get shot down, without risking the posters reputation.
As in “Let’s bomb those bastards back to the stone age!”
If anyone else agrees, the orignal username can chime in with the real points to be presented. If no one is buying, then the user goes back to the drawing board.
Thanks!
I had a thread I started deleted, back on my second post. The mods were quite right to delete it, as I had stupidly included the link to the dating site profile of the person I was ranting about (it was in the bbq pit.) This of course could have potentially exposed the SDMB to legal action (although it was very unlikely that would have happened)so it really deserved to be deleted.
Guess it was just a dumb newbie mistake. Afterwards I was like “why did I do that?!”
(so anyway if that hadn’t happened, my postcount would be 1 more than it is 
Stupid me! berates self)
There’s also more innocuous reasons for a thread to be deleted. If, for instance, a mod catches a duplicate thread early, before any replies (or perhaps even views), it might get deleted.