I’ve removed “delete” from the suggested guidelines above. I think, though, because we did not have clear guidelines, we were too lax in hiding posts. We didn’t want to create that perception, and in doing so let through a lot of things that were not at all what we want for Fedora discussions.
I think we should not be afraid of some people complaining about censorship or “free speech”. Hostile voices dominating the conversation also remove our ability to have real conversations, and lead towards people just avoiding transparent discussion at all. I do not want the defacto rule to be that only people with very thick skins can propose change in Fedora.[1]
I think my proposed rule is the best approach. We won’t make judgment calls on whether a given problematic post also brings up something that might look bad if we remove it. People have the opportunity to revise hidden posts and make them visible again.
I have also made a change — previously, only moderators and TL4 users could see hidden posts. Now, that is extended to TL3, FESCo, Mindshare Committee, and Council members. (They’re greyed out, but you can expand.) I hope that increased transparency into what exactly is hidden will give more confidence.