Freedom of speech goes out the window around here when there's a thread that's a threat or a personal attack on an individual. The thread Mick refers to is gone, and I didn't hesitate a second before I deleted it.
There are other threads that are harder to decide about, and I usually leave those alone and let them go as they may. Take this thread right here, for example, which I'm sure Mick started with good intent. I cringe when I see threads like this, because I know it's likely to turn out to be a flame thread (and starting a thread like this calls attention to flamers and gives them the attention they seek). Same with the "Is Mudcat a Friendly Site?" thread, although it also was probably started with completely innocent intentions. The one about whether the hijackers were gay was another one, although that kind of thread is protected by "freedom of speech" up to the point where it starts spawning copycat threads.
If there are flames here at Mudcat, the best response is not to acknowledge them in any way. It it's something that's really bad (personal attacks and threats are the only ones I can think of now), send a personal message to both Pene and me, and one of us will take a look at it and make a decision. Please do not start threads to call attention to flame/troll threads - that only serves to feed the flamers.
Please note that Pene and I do not ordinarily respond to requests for editing the content of a thread or message unless it constitutes a threat or personal attack - and the JoeClones do not have authority to edit anything other than technical problems (or spelling or dates or factual mistakes). If it's a message that causes technical problems like locking up a thread, post a message in the Help Forum. Generally, if it's just a bad link or another non-critical technical error, it's best just to leave it alone. The clones and Pene and I do a pretty thorough job of monitoring the Forum, and we handle most problems without your telling us about them. If you make note of it in the Help Forum and it's not something critical, it takes us a bit of time to follow your directions to the error and fix it (if it hasn't been fixed by somebody else already).
If you make a mistake in a message and want it to be corrected, just post the message again, with corrections. We'll delete the incorrect message when we see it. If we don't, it's not the end of the world.