I think we need some changes to that thread in OT. I understand why the mods are so aggressive in policing discussions there but I think it's a bit obnoxious to be honest. Can we convert the thread from a permanently pinned one to just a normal thread so we can have more discussions?
I oppose unpinning it. The reason for that is that I was the moderator who originally stickied it after being asked by several people (who informed me that they'd been making this very sensible request for
years). The reason it wasn't stickied before was due to the ridiculous "tradition" of only having one stickied thread in OT (the rules that were so outdated and incomplete as to be useless).
So after these requests, I just decided to sticky it and see what happened. The overall result for the forum was an easily-accessible, easily-visible place for people to say hello, goodbye, I'm back, without having to go through the hassle of finding the thread. Of course this assumes they even knew it existed, which new people didn't - hence why they would no sooner say hello then they were promptly infracted for making a personal thread - aka spam - and some would get offended and leave. The workload for the moderators was lessened, and the overall effect has been positive. I would hate to see this undone, as it's one of the positive changes I am responsible for - a legacy, if you will, and I'm pleased that it's still here and still appreciated.
My view is that deleting posts that directly relate to the introduction of a new person, or the leaving/return of others is obnoxious. There were a few friendly posts welcoming my friend Birchbark22 to CFC a couple of years or so back when she posted her "hi, I'm new" introductory post, and those were promptly removed. My friend never even got to see them before they were deleted. When she found out, she concluded that since the staff decided to delete her welcome messages, that meant she really wasn't welcome here after all. She never returned, and we lost the opportunity to welcome a poster who would have made a good addition to OT.
Those of us who expressed dismay at Mary's departure had our posts moved to some thread she didn't know about, and were accused of "yakking" (which was rude and an example of inconsistency since there are a lot of posts still there that could also be considered "yakking" but were allowed to remain).
My view is that if there are a few related posts to the member's message of being new, leaving, or returning, it's harmless. It's not like a derailment that can sometimes go on for pages. Most don't even run more than two or three posts. I don't see the problem.
I do see a problem with unstickying this thread. If that happens, we go back to having the problem I originally stickied it in order to fix.