Thread deleted with no explanation

I recently posted a new thread containing a link to a newspaper article about impending rule making with respect to table saw safety features in consumer products that I found interesting and highly related to a frequent topic of discussion here. AFAIK my post contained nothing political, offensive, abusive, or outside the TOS. It was deleted without so much as a "by-the-by" or any indication of how or why it was deemed inappropriate. (though the article in question did mention that different groups of congresscritters disagreed on the issue, big surprise-- is that sufficient for the post to be deemed "political"?). As I recall the article was pretty straight news, not arguing for a position.

Is it SOP here not to tell offenders what they did wrong? or even that they have done something wrong? How is one to learn without feedback?

I'm guess this was the CPSC one that got way out of control?

Your post was not removed for anything you did. One of the moderators posted a very clear warning that the post would be removed if it "become political, contentious, and most often end up being edited" The second post and several more, right after that notice was posted, is exactly what occurred, so it was removed.

I will add to what Lee said by mentioning that for the entire 20+ year life of SMC, the moderation team has never been required to provide a reason for any particular action. That can unfortunately be confusing in situations like this where an OP didn't break any rules but enough others did in a thread to make it impractical for editing. So a whole thread can go bye-bye. That particular topic tends to draw out the worst in some people historically...and currently it seems. When warnings are not heeded..."stuff happens".

Jim
Forum Moderator

Thanks to the moderators here at SMC. You guys are on the ball.

Leave the OP, remove any posts referring to it and close the thread with an explanation if that seems necessary. The information is still there for anyone who wants to read it which was the intent of the OP.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chris Parks

Leave the OP, remove any posts referring to it and close the thread with an explanation if that seems necessary. The information is still there for anyone who wants to read it which was the intent of the OP.

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The Moderators are unpaid volunteers. What you suggest would cause a lot of work that really is unnecessary if members would just abide by the TOSs they agreed to abide when they joined.

I am aware of what they are and what they do, others may not be.

OK, I get it. Just trying to figure out what I did that was wrong, especially since I went to the trouble of getting a non-paywalled link so that people could read it. It appears quite mysterious if one doesn't see the intermediate traffic that caused the problem. On forums that I've moderated in the past it was easy to zap individual posts and close threads as needed without deleting them entirely, didn't realize it was so hard here. I do appreciate the work of the moderators!