I had a message deleted yesterday for being off-topic. I have no idea what the message said because it's deleted. But one of the things that attracted me to this site was that the moderation seemed to not be heavy handed. Now I've had several posts deleted in the past couple months and I don't really know what's wrong with any of them. If I drift from a topic, it's never so far that it should be offensive. If I drift, it's almost always in response to something someone else posted so it seems that the post I responded to must have been off-topic, too.
Discussions drift. I could sit with any of you and talk about Linux. If we talk about Linux it will probably drift off-topic to Windows. And the weather. But that's not a thing to delete a post for.
I'm disappointed that the moderation seems to me to be excessive and, perhaps, arbitrary. I have no way to know what was deleted, by whom, or why so I can't say that it's done by certain moderators who get challenged frequently for their views.
For the sake of sincerity - I had the same problem, deleted as 'trolling' and no further reference.
Demanded explanation, argued my point, and the mod returned 2 of my deleted posts,
the 3rd one I agreed was needless.
The issue of having the posts lost was raised, people actually invest in researching valid info,
that they may want to repost in relevant threads or create new ones. And labeling that as 'trolling' is devaluing the experience of the forum.
The exchange was respectful.
It's good to open such threads,
also might help talk directly to the involved people.
You know,
constructive feedback.