We made every effort to let it evolve back to civility on it's own, but all it did was devolve into something worse.
Obviously. Everything about the OP says it's a PM. Why it was posted in public, and not sent via a PM, I can only guess. But it seems fairly obvious. One person's "just curious, that's all," does not a proper on-topic Soapbox thread make. So with that, if anyone is still curious, they can take it up in a PM or in the Website and Support Services forum where this thread has been moved.
No, no. You misunderstood completely. We're not going to continue that conversation here in Web Site and Support Services. A little decorum, common courtesy and intelligence, please.
At what point did this thread head south?
It seems fairly obvious because it is fairly obvious. I wanted a more detailed explanation of why that thread was shut down and I thought with 107 replies it should be of interest to all so I started the thread and asked the question out in the open space of the Soap Box for all to see, rather than a p.m. I wanted, ah what's that current buzzword? Transparency, yeah that's it. I wanted to indulge in a little of that transparency stuff.
There is no transparency here with regard to moderator and administrator actions. Section 11 of the Code of Conduct makes that abundantly clear with, "Likewise, discussions regarding moderator or administrator actions are not permitted on the forum." The only transparency we have here is the that everyone agreed to abide by the Code of Conduct when they signed up. I don't make the rules, but I do try and follow them. A consensus was reached by administrators and moderators on locking the thread and, so far, keeping it locked. That consensus need not be transparently justified to the membership at large. You might possibly, however, get your curiosity satisfied by asking the same questions in a PM, since nothing in the Code of Conduct prohibits such discussions in private.
