There is a lot I don't like about the bbc message board systems, notably user unfriendliness and rules that I feel are too rigid but I also appreciate that they have difficulties that perhaps other forums don't have.
The BBC is in someways supposed to be an "upright pillar of UK society" and I don't think could afford to accept "idiot" posts. You have seen what can happen here with just 1 fuckwit posting something, followed by dozens of posters complaining how awful it is or adding thier 2c to the thread to ensure thier opinion is heard, etc.
Imagine what could break out, perhaps including reports of the "bbc has allowed this on the Internet" leaked out to newspapers... I guess that is why they go so far with the moderation and closing. They seem to feel that to protect themselves, they have the need to keep a close watch on posts and as far as I know have never allowed posts to be "live" overnight.
I think the other thing we need to consider is the scale of the BBC message board system. We tend only to look at the folk one and compare it to the infinately more busy Mudcat. But folk is only one board on the system and a minority one at that. R2 alone has 8 boards including the folk one. Running through R1 to R5, I count 67 boards on the system, including boards for popular chart music and for discussion on soccer.
I'm not saying thier management is right, just they may have far more problems to deal with than may be apparent at top surface.
Unfortunately the bottom line for me is that the restrictions and user unfriendliness mean that I don't find the folk music board particularly useful although I do look in there most days.