In the old days (waits for scottishmummy!), threads were not deleted because they did not go the way the OP wanted. In fact, I remember posts from MNHQ talking about them still being valuable etc etc. And now you get to hide them if you don't like the way they are going.
But it seems you can just ask now, and it happens.
And that annoys me, especially when I am just composing my post 
I am feeling like an old gimmer now...