If I recall correctly, I have chosen to engage in slash and burn agriculture in respect of two threads. Both were started by posters whom I believe to be well-intentioned folk but who are not Industry savvy to the extent that the bulk of the readership is. My thrust is keep the threads in line with site owner dictates and the general tone of this Forum .. no more, no less.
I don't believe that anyone who reads Tech Log routinely would suggest that it is a heavily moderated (think "facilitated") forum. That is not our style here ...
Some points of note -
(a) mods are volunteers (some would claim co-optees) and, in the main, well-, even highly, placed in their respective areas within the Industry. Many of the folk who frequent this Board, particularly, are placed similarly .. Genghis and John Farley, both of whom posted above, are very pertinent examples of people who have many more runs on the career board than most folk ever aspire to ... I could cite a number of regular posters with more technical post-nominals ...
(b) as volunteers, we spend OUR time helping to keep this Board running.
(c) we are not descendents of Solomon so do not have that level of decision-making skill and finesse .. rather, we do our best and that is all that can be asked.
(d) the Board is owned privately and, at the end of the day, the owners decide who gets to play and what the rules are. The day to day application is delegated to the mods and, should anyone be aggrieved, then it is always open for you to put your case to Danny or Rob .. and, be assured, that occurs from time to time ..
(e) Tech Log, for a non-refereed place, has developed into a reasonably serious and, occasionally rigorous, discussion forum. Topics which move into significant speculation are better placed elsewhere ...
(f) I chose to leave the thread here (with significant edits) rather than move it to a more appropriate forum with redirection on. One poster opines "It just seems that this thread was not allowed to run its course. If it was so bad, why not tranfer it, in its entirety, to "Jet Blast?" ". I suggest that the thread was not bad, merely not appropriate to this Forum. If there is a groundswell, I am quite happy to refer the thread to those higher up the totem pole for a call on whether it might be better to move it elsewhere.
(g) for those who took exception to their responses being removed, the decision resided with me, and the rationale was that posts which had lost their nexus to the discussion were removed for continuity.
(h) provided that technical discussion remains on a technical engineering/operational level by all means re-introduce it .. but leave the highly speculative and imaginative dialogue elsewhere .. or it will be subject to edit. Be very aware, though, that mod work is not at all a science .. there is a need for steering a very tenuous line at times .. sometimes we do that well, other times not so well.
(i) be very aware that I, for one, do my very level best not to permit whatever my own prejudices may be interfering with mod decisions. Posts will not be edited for content just because I disagree with that content ..
(j) "rumour board" ? now in name only and long gone as a reality. PPRuNe is referred to by high levels in the Industry, Regulators and the Military. Whether individual posters like it or not, Tech Log is going to remain a reasonably focussed Forum, albeit not to the point of becoming dreary ..