Late yesterday I returned to the forum to review how a particularly difficult but important thread was progressing. All trace of it seems to have disappeared.
I can understand how the content seemed to be moving towards contravening naming and shaming a seller, but as far as I recall no one had not so far been named. Obviously there may well have been activity on the thread whilst I was away which might have crossed the line, but I do wonder if the removal of the whole thread was really necessary rather than just moderasting any comments which might have been too close to the edge. There were some important safety and legal points about what to do under the circumstances.
I appreciate the moderators sometimes have a difficult task monitoring the whole forum as the responsibility is not a professional occupation, but sometimes it seems the sword of Damocles is used when perhaps the legitimate public interest might be better served by a more judicious pruning.
However if a whole thread has to be removed, it would be incredibly helpful for the moderator(s) to leave message under the threads title as to the fact the has been action taken, and if reasonable to explain why.
I can understand how the content seemed to be moving towards contravening naming and shaming a seller, but as far as I recall no one had not so far been named. Obviously there may well have been activity on the thread whilst I was away which might have crossed the line, but I do wonder if the removal of the whole thread was really necessary rather than just moderasting any comments which might have been too close to the edge. There were some important safety and legal points about what to do under the circumstances.
I appreciate the moderators sometimes have a difficult task monitoring the whole forum as the responsibility is not a professional occupation, but sometimes it seems the sword of Damocles is used when perhaps the legitimate public interest might be better served by a more judicious pruning.
However if a whole thread has to be removed, it would be incredibly helpful for the moderator(s) to leave message under the threads title as to the fact the has been action taken, and if reasonable to explain why.