Joe is going after redundant threads, threads that begin with no message, just a link, and deleting stuff that probably has no business being here anyway, as in "I don't have anything to say, but I need to type something anyway." (No, I'm not talking about humor - we need some humor.) We've always (since we've had the capability) combined similar threads and deleted blank messages. I personally wouldn't delete the "here's a cool link" messages but would move the link to an appropriate thread if there were one.

If I were mostivated by ego instead of a desire for discussion, and wanted to start whole bunch of threads to get a whole bunch of responses, I could post link after link (or cut-and-paste after cut-and-paste) in thread after thread because it's too easy and I didn't have to type anything. Most folks wouldn't do that but it's become painfully obvious that some would.

The thread that was grouped with PELs and was unlinked - well I did the un-link - it was fairly obvious to me that, while that thread could be related to PELs, it was also related to other issues going on. I watched that thread and the Help Forum (correcting mistakes is the reason it exists). Not one word. I'm just guessing, but I'd bet Joe never got a PM about it either. This silence led me to believe the un-linking was the right thing to do. The thread is now back in the group.

As far as the large list of PEL threads - yes, a lot of threads have been started on the PEL issue.
We could combine some threads, but that's very intensive and no doubt would be used as evidence against us. It would be possible to move the list somewhere, but that would also be evidence - "I can tell you don't want anybody to find it way down at the bottom like that!" Same with completely deleting the grouping. It's not up to me, but I don't believe it's reasonable to change the entire structure of Mudcat for one particular issue that seems to have gotten out of hand regarding number of threads. On the other hand, maybe the PEL threads could be broken into subgroups.

Most arguments in this thread are all about hypothetical situations - the what ifs and the worst case scenarios. It's not realistic. Maybe some folks are just expressing their darkest thoughts out loud. I'm sure we all can think of people we wouldn't trust with making judgement calls consistently temptered by common sense and self control. They may have difficulty not reacting emotionally to what people do or say. Unfortunately, since they can't keep emotions from motivating behavior, they assume no one can. There are other people who just see an opportunity to troll. The use of the word "censorship" used to describe the moving of posts as opposed to deletion is a fairly blatant indicator. Mentioning names and attributing Evil Motives is another. It's a whole lot easier to remain calm about issues than perceived attacks on people - just gotta react to those! (Sits back to watch reactions to above message.)

I trust Joe even though I may not always agree with him. He's a volunteer but behaves professionally. I believe I do the same. I fix stuff for everyone, no matter how I feel about them or whether I agree with them or not. I personally don't care for the large amount of words in the large amount of PEL threads, (I'm not talking about any discussion of this worthy cause) but I still read some of them. I thought I was doing something right by ungrouping that message. (I haven't yet been called on the carpet for fixing occasional links in those threads, but I assume that sort of thing goes un-noticed.)

If you have complaints on specific problems, please say something. If I don't know about it, I'm not taking any responsibility for its continued existance.