After reading this thread, two comments:
If what DJ says is true in regard to the corruption of links from google » fornits, that is a legitimate consideration.
And, the spam in the offa forum is a drag; i suggest more thorough deletion or the implementation of captcha again (as a preventative measure).
This is the whole point, Frod. Joel was busy deleting threads that he called "flooding" in this thread, but, for example,
this thread was posted nearly a month ago and had only two posts in it, yet because Joel is not a deliberate, thoughtful person, he didn't read it or understand its context or even look at the date it was created - he just deleted it.
So, firstly, that's a problem because there was no rule violation and how can a thread be a "flood" if its a month old with two posts? And, secondly, it was the number one Google return for "ridge creek assault" but, because Joel 86ed it extrajudicially, outside the rules, when you clicked the link in Google, you got "The requested topic does not exist."
In my opinion, this is doing the dirtywork of the industry trolls like Whooter by effectively burying a child rape report along with its source document, the DHS report.
So because Joel wanted to exercise his mod power to the end of continuing his personal battles with posters who criticize him, he put children at risk. That is small thinking, petty, selfish and wrong. Joel is not cut out for the job because he uses his power to advance a personal agenda and each time he does it, he gets his wrist slapped and has to put back the all the posts, but not until there is some big to-do over it and Psy has to step in to jerk his leash.