Guest, I was referring more to Shambles suggestion that deletions and closures are often based on personal choice, and I do think that is fair to say.

Again Ron, this is something that has been hammered out time and time again...

I wouldn't use the wording "personal choice" but I don't think anyone disputes that many decisions are based on "personal judgement" and can not be taken by rules that are written in stone. I also would doubt you will find many who at least in thier own opinion believe that on occasions a wrong decision has been made.

I do not know exactly how things work now but when I was a clone here, there was a structure and the clones only used powers of deletion in very limited circumstances (eg. a duplicated post, perhaps blatant spam , etc. - things where there was no question).

Anything further was dealt by Joe and Jeff, and "in consultation" with Max.

There also was, and I believe still is, a clear complaints procedure where one takes a matter to Joe Offer first and then onto Max.

Things might have changed a little from there but is my belief that a structure and chain of command still exists and that ultimately the "judgement calls" are in fact done under what I will call "Max's editorial guidelines".

By contrast, shambles' "mudcat view" appears to be based on Joe Offer sort of taking control and not acting in accordance with any "editorial guidelines". It is a situation that I do not believe exits.