Max, Jeff, Joe and all the other Mudcat folks spend their time, energy & cash on the Mudcat. In that sense, it belongs to them, and I feel that they have a right to choose what that time, energy & cash is spent on maintaining.
I have a friend and colleague who runs a weblog, which is frequently "spammed" by all manner of nuisance posters. He routinely removes these (frequently deeply offensive) posts, stopping them using his site's popularity to gain search engine ranking and attract other unwelcome contributors.

I see this as much the same situation, albeit in a much "watered-down" form... if it's your "noticeboard", you control it's content as you see fit.

Cheers
Tracey