Reply #62: Good start, but...

[paulthompson]

I understand DU faces conflicting pressures here and needs to find a balance. I appreciate this clarification statement as a good start. However, there are things that need to be addressed that I haven't seen addressed.

First off, I think there needs to be a policy or clarification of policy on the complete deletion of an entire thread instead of just locking it. What is the official DU policy on this now? The night before last I had a new thread about the CBC story deleted seven times on both the LBN and General forums. I kept trying to change and shorten it to figure out what I was doing wrong until finally I was doing nothing but posting one paragraph from the CBC story on the General forum, but even that new thread was deleted completely without explanation. Further, no one PMed me or emailed me to explain what was unacceptable, despite me repeatedly asking in posts and emails what I was doing wrong.

I think deleting a thread is a sort of "nuclear option" that should only be used in extreme circumstances. When a thread is locked an explanation for the locking is usually given, which is useful so the poster can live and learn. When a thread is deleted, there's no explanation. It's very Orwellian. I hope DU will state a policy that complete deletion of a thread should only happen as a last resort, for instance if someone makes a post laced with racial insults. I still can't understand why a thread based on a CBC story would be deleted, much less simply locked.

I've got to take off so I'll post more later.