Quote:
Originally Posted by devonin
The reason posts get deleted is because it does the community more harm to have a bunch of gross hostile crap on display for everybody to see that it does harm to somebody having their gross hostile post deleted.
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So here's the scenario, hyperbolic for further clarity of course:
Jimmy posts an opinion he has for x, y, z reason, with hopes to have his opinion heard, or to hear thoughts about said opinion. This opinion is controversial, and negative, but is a stance regardless.
Susie posts a retort to
Jimmy's opinion. It's not terribly civil either honestly, and is the opposite from what was originally said.
Jimmy and
Susie bicker back and forth in this thread for a few minutes, when their posts get deleted and the thread gets locked. Maybe they also get a 1 day ban.
Jimmy still has his stance, probably even more strongly than he did before, and he's even more upset about it potentially. He may also dislike
Susie now.
Susie still has her stance, probably even more strongly than she did before, and she's even more upset about it potentially. She may also dislike
Jimmy now.
9 days later, a new thread comes up, and both
Susie and
Jimmy are present and their opinions come up. Chances are they'll be even more vitriolic because of what went down, not getting closure, maybe they also didn't like being censored, they essentially got cut off early and had their voice suppressed instead of being corrected. They probably use more poignant grammar and more angry bolded caps now; the cycle repeats and the problem grows each time.
This is an oversimplification as well, and isn't quite accurate but is what I've moreorless noticed happening potentially, with at least a couple people.
Would not deleting posts help this? ....well it couldn't hurt, assuming we want them to stay in the community (I do, because I like 95% of people on ffr well enough).