Folks,

Per the Terms of Service which you all agreed to abide when you registered for membership:

It is our policy to support the free flow of information in a manner best befitting the woodworking community at large. Sawmill Creek is an online community where woodworkers may come together to share and discuss a common interest. Sawmill Creek reserves the right to refuse or delete any Content of which it becomes aware and reasonably deems not to fulfill its established purpose. In addition, SawMill Creek shall have the right (but not the obligation) in its sole discretion to edit, refuse or delete any Content that it reasonably considers to violate these Terms without notice. You understand and agree that the service is provided "AS-IS" and that SawMill Creek assumes no responsibility for the timeliness, deletion, mis-delivery or failure to store any user communications.

Nobody forced you to agree to the TOSs.

Threads are never deleted because they could be and have been in the past, subpoenaed for court cases. They are simply moved to the Moderator's Forum where they are no longer in public view.

I didn't see the thread involved but based on some of the posts in this thread, it's easy to understand why that thread was removed.