"Asking the originator's permission implies ownership."

Jenny - An office chair or a bar stool may not be owned by you - and someone asking if they can sit in it - does not imply ownership. It is simply recognises a reality - and the fact that it is polite to ask first.

If I start a thread on our forum - with an original song - does it become Joe Offer's to re-title, move and change as he wishes and as a matter of routine? Where is this so written?

I am not the one who is stating that a contributor does not own their contribution and does not need to be first asked before any change is imposed. Perhaps you should take this up with those who do state this? But I do think that respect and credit is due from our volunteers (without any public judgement) to any contribution invited by Max?

If our volunteers are correct and the contribution does not belong to the contributor any longer - at no point does this contribution become the sole property of our volunteers. It may belong to the community and it may possibly belong to Max (if he wants this)?

Unless you follow our volunteer's skewed thinking - that responsiblity for everything they say and do is atomatically down to Max - to its logical conclusion? Which could lead folk to consider that the contents of Max's bank account (such as it is) also belongs to our trusted volunteers - to do with as they wish.

I don't think it sensible to think that the thread is owned by its originator - but their wishes should be respected and sought if a volunteer wishes to make a change to it. Threads are community owned and the community can and will pass natural judgement as to when it is no longer of interest. Because they are community efforts - folk should not ask for threads to be closed or deleted and our volunteers should not impose their personal judgement upon them as a matter of routine.

Individual posts are probably more easily thought of as being owned by their originator - and if someone wishes their own post to be deleted or changed - the poster is most likely entitled to ask for this....