I have noticed that recently there have been a lot of deleted threads. Most did not seem controversial. Does anybody know why?

I saw that the M&G thread was deleted, specifically.  Unless there was a 4 am flame war that I was unaware of, I can't imagine why they had to take it down.  If the subject was controversial, you'd think they wouldn't allow me to post it in the first place?

If u had a post in any of the threads that u noticed that got deleted, go to your MyTer and go to "my board posts" and if your posts was the father or a leave of the thread that got deleted, it will have an explanation there.  

When you delete the "parent" or the first post, all the "leaves" or posts deriving from the parent will be deleted subsequently. It's How most data structures work.

if someone asks to have something removed that they personally wrote then it will also delete all replies to what that person wrote.
you can ask to have anything that you have written removed.

Well I can't speak for all the other ones that have been deleted, but the M&G post from yesterday was apparently deleted because it "appeared to be an ad"... which I think we can all agree it definitely wasn't.  

As Sasha pointed out, when one branch is pruned, all the responses to whichever post was deleted will be deleted right along with it, if the post that is deleted is the OP, the entire thread will disappear with it.

I noticed it happening frequently when the thread was completely off the topic.and was getting offensive. Perhaps a way to get an official answer would be to ask the management.

Tree mode is the original format used on the TER boards going back to 2004 at least.  Flat mode was introduced during the last upgrade in 2010, and was panned widely by the membership because it made it incoherent as to who was speaking to who in posts.  I'm sure you remember, GaG, the controversy.  Not only was Tree mode retained, but so was the entire old site, which became TER Classic.  Now, if only CC had kept the chat function intact...that was the major casualty during the last upgrade (the delayed upcoming upgrade notwithstanding).

That's why there was such a flap when the last "New TER" was introduced. TER replaced the best discussion board software with a cheap copy of the worst. Fortunately after a huge uproar here, common sense prevailed and tree mode was retained.

Late last year on my local board there were several threads deleted and later some trouble because of it. If you are going to call out someone on what they post, make sure you have a record of it that others can not delete.

...I agree with you. It clearly was not an ad for anything. Call them on it. See what they say. Their response will be under My Feedback on the My TER page.

1. A Provider was complaining that she didn't want reviews, how to remove them, etc. After many replies, it came down to her asking TER to delist her, remove her Profile, reviews, account and all of her posts.  Every trace.  When her OP post disappeared, so did all the replies.

... will often get you a "canned" response from TER. Usually, no further explanation is stated.  

I had one yesterday that TER refused to put up because it was "rude."  Believe me, I know when I'm being rude, since I do it often.  And it's intentional.  This post wasn't remotely rude.  

-- Modified on 8/27/2015 2:08:54 PM

...now Flat is the default mode.  You have to click Tree in order to make it the mode you want to use.