> For the past couple days, I've been working on a perl program that would help me delete posts easier. Up until now, I've removed posts that needed deleting manually, which is a pain, because it requires hand-modifying all the associated pages. Last night, I finished testing this program, so I have a working tool, now.
>
> I did this for three reasons: one, because I could use it anyway, for spam, double posts, etc. Two, because recently I think the quality of the average message forum posts have taken a downward turn of late, and I think it's time for me to break from the backseat position I've taken in the past and become a more active moderator. Three, because the size of the message forum has grown to 70 megs (all the rest of RinkWorks only takes up an additional 55 megs!), and it needs to be pruned down purely for disk space reasons.
>
> Over time, I will be going back into the message forum archives and removing posts that are not of enduring interest. I don't expect to be too harsh, and I won't remove anything that I can conceive people of being generally interested in.
>
> I will also be keeping an eye on the new posts (which I do anyway) and become more active as a moderator in this forum. I don't expect to be overly heavy-handed, but I will be removing posts that aren't substantial, thereby increasing the signal to noise ratio and hopefully making it easier for those who have a hard time keeping up to do so.
>
> So the bottom line is, don't be surprised, or think you're seeing things, if posts disappear. Also, please don't be hurt or upset if you find one of your own posts gone. It's not that I think less of you, or want to stifle your expression, or want to discourage you from posting further. Nothing could be further from the truth.
>
> I hope you all understand where I'm coming from.
>
> --
>
> Now to address Issachar's original question: One of your posts was part of a subthread that I deleted on purpose -- I forget now why. The other, which was your request for references from Wolfspirit, was deleted mistakenly, and I have since restored it and the post you replied to.

Let's say, hypothetically, that within just such a subthread that some good ideas/opinions were expressed that you deemed worthy of preserving. However, a root post from which they came contained an objectionable sentence. Could you simply edit out the objectionable portion (replaced with some editor's note) instead of having to delete every subsequent post that follows it? So that a post which, in itself, is not objectionable nor superflous could be preserved.

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