We need a community rep that interacts with the community

[kikix12]

That is why mods used to lock the thread first, which had been done in the past.

Locking prevents further escalation in the given thread. It does not prevent escalation in new threads, and believe me...a particularly heated response WILL get players to post "I wanted to post this volatile stuff in the original thread, but it was locked, so I'll bash the poster X in this new thread" threads. All over the place.

If a thread will be deleted...well, not only is the offensive content (when it is offensive) out of sight, out of mind, as they say...but people are going to be far, far less likely to make references to it...thus they won't post threads "Hey, I've been having a flame war in thread X, but it no longer exists, so here's my response to something that you can no longer read.".

Basically, deletion is done when a thread does more bad than good and simple post deletion won't change much (or large chunk of posts would need to be deleted). And believe me...a swamp of threads about the exact same topic ALREADY does more bad than good, let alone what kinda stuff can be found in some of them.

[KaivaC]

Locking prevents further escalation in the given thread. It does not prevent escalation in new threads, and believe me...a particularly heated response WILL get players to post "I wanted to post this volatile stuff in the original thread, but it was locked, so I'll bash the poster X in this new thread" threads. All over the place.

If a thread will be deleted...well, not only is the offensive content (when it is offensive) out of sight, out of mind, as they say...but people are going to be far, far less likely to make references to it...thus they won't post threads "Hey, I've been having a flame war in thread X, but it no longer exists, so here's my response to something that you can no longer read.".

Basically, deletion is done when a thread does more bad than good and simple post deletion won't change much (or large chunk of posts would need to be deleted). And believe me...a swamp of threads about the exact same topic ALREADY does more bad than good, let alone what kinda stuff can be found in some of them.

That wasn't the case with the Eureka threads, save for Pyros. It certainly wasn't the case with housing either. People are going to vent however they need to, and deleting a thread is not the right way to go about it. It could be encouraged by the mods to keep all related criticism and concerns into a megathread - but that would require the mods actually communicate in the first place. And no, just having forum rules pinned somewhere is not adequate. When you have a hot topic that frustrates posters, they're going to speak up. Getting rid of it doesn't make those complaints less valid just because some people feel it does more bad than good. Posters are rightfully upset about some things that have happened, and the basic lack of decent acknowledgement that our worries have even a little bit of merit is flat out frustrating to see.

And in spite of what you and another poster said, advocating for reporting people just for stating their opinion on content in a manner that honestly is not offensive in nature is not the right way to go about handling things.

[Iscah]

If a thread will be deleted...well, not only is the offensive content (when it is offensive) out of sight, out of mind, as they say...but people are going to be far, far less likely to make references to it...thus they won't post threads "Hey, I've been having a flame war in thread X, but it no longer exists, so here's my response to something that you can no longer read.".

Basically, deletion is done when a thread does more bad than good and simple post deletion won't change much (or large chunk of posts would need to be deleted). And believe me...a swamp of threads about the exact same topic ALREADY does more bad than good, let alone what kinda stuff can be found in some of them.

I would take a guess that mods might also be quicker to delete one thread that's turned nasty if there are multiple threads on that topic - even more so if the same actual debate-arguments are being posted in both places.