The problem is when 80% of contributers to a thread are genuinely partaking in the discussion and 20% (or less) are making ostensibly racist comments - which I personally do not think happens very often - or nasty personal posts to attack the OP or another poster - which does happen far more often, or just being mean and the entire thread is pulled as if the other 80% of contributions do not matter.
The other problem is that what people see as 'Trolling' can be very subjective. Some users are more sensitive to certain issues than others, myself included. Sometimes what is simply robust, not PC conforming, or an atypical viewpoint is flagged immediately as either 'goady fuckery' or trolling. Once a few jump on the bandwagon of troll hunting/goady accusing on a thread and start reporting enmasse, MN will sometimes just pull down the thread with that "we're just looking behind the scenes" or "not in the spirit", the "spirit" often being how many people report, not necessarily what the thread is about. I always wonder how the OP, if innocent must feel after making such an effort.
I don't understand why MN do not appear on threads with a reminder to users to make use of the 'hide thread' function, or why people waste time reporting threads that they do not like instead of simply 'hiding' it. I recall someone posting a thread about a horrible childhood experience and people telling the OP that what they were posting was upsetting and the thread should be pulled. It was the OPs (admittedly distressing) experience and I did not understand why the OP, having gone through considerable difficulty to share her story, should have felt the need to accommodate the wishes of those who were uncomfortable by changing her thread title to include a warning when the 'hide thread' button was available, and there was no need for those users to carry on contributing in the first place!!
I use other social media and overall prefer to be treated like an adult only on MN am I presented with this bizarre cleansing of things that are unconfortable.
Of course some threads do very justifiably require deleting, I have reported a couple in my 10 + years - but atm it really does seem that a considerable number get pulled in a knee jerk manner, because some don't like the opinions of others. A recent example would be someone posting that they agreed with the changes to abortion law in the US, a very (very!) robust debate ensued, and sure enough, MN mods came to shut down the thread. What for?! In fact I recall they changed their minds when posters said the debate had been necessary and given air to differences of opinion that deserved challenging. But it typified what I'm talking about, the shut down of a difficult debate because some people didn't like and couldn't tolerate the viewpoints of others, and didnt have the wherewithal to simply withdraw from the thread and hide it. No. They were not happy so the whole thread should go. It all breeds an air of intolerance, and increasingly posters remark on threads that 'you can't say that here' or 'Just mention xyz and see how quickly this thread is shut down' or 'Wow this thread is still going' because they are suprised that the sensitivity of other posters hasn't resulted in a crack down by MN.
One week I had more than 4 threads I was contributing to pulled. These were and usually are 'Active' and often more controversial threads. If I am on MN regularly -due to illness for eg- I use the Active thread search button and can guarantee one will be pulled. It's frustrating and has made me cool off the site at times. MN can you respond to my points?