We're a 16-year-old community, so yeah, it's not just a "setting in the administration panel" which goes into the decision to restrict how long we allow members to delete threads or posts. It's based upon experience in this and other communities where a member can "rewrite history" by removing posts that show them in a negative light, or that they later regret -- which is unfair to other members who responded to those posts as they happened.

We've always had -- and still have -- the option to contact any member of the community support team to request a thread or post be removed. We nearly always comply with such requests.

These kinds of decisions are made with a lot of thought about what is best for both individual members and the community as a whole. We always have to approach issues like this from a holistic point of view.

Thanks,
DocJohn