Hello Guyzo-
Bob had looked at the situation and had decided to leave the posts in place to show how awful the two participants were acting, knowing if the posts were deleted, lots of speculation would follow, and he was right. In the meantime, I had received several PMs from concerned members about the matter and disagreed about leaving the posts in place, so I came over here to check it out. Since this forum is "lightly moderated," I never venture into this area.
The thread had derailed into a slugfest between the two members and it had nothing to do with the topic. It was angry, hateful, vitriolic and just awful, much like a similar situation I had stumbled upon just months ago. It's very troubling for me, and obviously other members, to see this type of exchange going on between members in any forum on SP. So I removed the posts that contained the troubling dialog that had understandably bothered others.
Of course Bob was right with his prediction and speculation certainly followed. It was another tough call. I felt something had to be done. If nothing was done, we were hosed either way.
I did not want to delete the thread. Its a good topic, so I labored to remove the argument instead of the whole thing, which would have been easier. Rest assured the deleted posts had nothing to do with the topic.
As to your "deleted post" question, we could go in to each post, erase the content and type in "deletd post" which is even more labor intensive (it's four clicks for each deletion). But we don't do that because it would get people thinking we go in and alter their content. We don't, and we don't have the time.
Chief and Dingus were the offenders and both understand why. Most folks know who was involved, so I try not to make it any more obvious than needed.
Folks may not agree with choices we make with each situation, and in a situation like this with bitterly feuding members that results in other members PMing the staff with their concerns, we do what we think is best, and in this case, it's to get the thread back on topic and get the arguing members to calm down. The members don't want to see it or they wouldn't PM the staff. Folks that disgree can certainly carry on their battle in private through PMs or email, but in a forum on an established topic, the best solution is to remove posts not pertinent to the topic.
Washing their mouths out with soap implies punnishing little kids. I rather like "negotiate a truce" or "take a step back and think about it and then talk it over elsewhere," because these aren't kids. They're guys that are passionate about their climbing, ethics and opinions.
I gather my "snide" comment you refer to about the lightly moderated forum was not intended that way. The forum is lightly moderated, which for me means leaving it alone until I'm alerted to a problem. This is my first visit here. To my knowledge, this forum has never had any problems. As to the delete button remark, until recently, I have purposely avoided the delete button. I understand I might have to use it more in the future. As to keeping this forum lightly moderated, I whole heartdly want to keep it that way, hence my bold letters on that point.
Hope that answers your concerns, and I hope I didn't derail this thread!
I'll gladly remove my off topic post upon request-I just wanted to answer your concerns.