Looks like another interesting thread with lots of excellent posts has been deleted (again on climate change). While I agree there were some posts that deserved to be edited or deleted and posters that deserved to be warned or given a time out, why delete the entire thread? The majority of the posts were well within the forum guidelines (or else the thread wouldn't have lasted so long )and many contained excellent arguments with links to informative articles or else it wouldn't have attracted so many posters.

Why not delete or edit the offending posts, warn the offenders(maybe suspend them for a week or more if they are repeat offenders), freeze the thread for a few days to let people calm down and the reopen with a warning? A lot of effort by posters to research and communicate their points of view went into their posts and deserves to be left up.