Hello, everyone.
We just wanted to pop in again to answer the questions since our last post. The main concern seems to be about the wording of our deletion message.
We do absolutely take your point that it sounds a bit 'bald', particularly on threads where an OP is having a really difficult time. The wording of these posts we decided on with guidance from The Samaritans and Mind, as we felt that we simply weren't experts on the subject. While the term 'these sorts of threads' does sound odd, the alternative is to be clear about it and say 'threads about suicide' or 'threads about self harm', and we suspect we were advised to avoid those terms as they might be potentially triggering for someone already in a bad place.
We do usually contact posters off the boards in these situations to pass on our list of mental health support contacts, so there is personal contact from MNHQ there. The message is really intended just to let everyone know that a thread has been deleted (without going into personal detail about the OP's situation or leaving people with the impression they might not have been genuine, or anything like that). Unfortunately, the outcome is that the deletion message itself can then feel a little 'cold', and we do understand your concerns about that, but we think it's probably the 'least worst' option.
We'd always be happy to hear other suggestions, though, and we will certainly run this past those professional organisations again when we next look at updating and checking all our processes with threads that mention suicide.
In terms of the moderation of that particular thread, we're afraid we don't think it's fair to discuss that on the boards, hence not giving more information on the thread or in the deletion message, but we have been in contact with the OP of that thread, as we said.
Thanks again for passing on your thoughts. We do appreciate it. Hope that goes some way towards answering your questions.