[bmah]

Originally Posted by Mourningfall

I'm reminded of Travis Flesher of all people. Kid just wanted to know how trains work, made a CT thread, I gave him the answer.
within seconds: thread deleted; user banned.

Hmm, I'm curious about what went on in that situation, even though I wasn't around. I might not be correct on this, but maybe he was trolling?

Which brings me to another point: on the occasion that people make troll threads (just for kicks or whatever other reason), it can possibly reduce the trust amongst everyone else. Suddenly it becomes difficult to differentiate an inocuous thread and a thread where the boy cries wolf. Almost like a "made you look" sort of situation, you know what I mean? Then all sorts of things can go wrong when a non-troll thread is deleted, or misunderstandings can occur if a real troll thread is deleted and other users aren't aware of the poster's history. It honestly makes moderation that much harder, because mods are still held to the same standards when false threads litter the forum like a mine field, and anyone would have a difficult time picking out the real thing or trying to explain the situation to other people. :/

Whatever happened in that thread you mentioned I'm not sure, but it could've easily fallen into the situation I explained above. But yeah, it was probably better to let that thread continue and let observations happen for a while longer before a decision could be made. (Usually though, it's not too hard to tell if someone's dicking around.)