Mark, I would just like to add that this site like all sites has developed rules over time that caters to the needs of the particular site and individual forums.
I've been to a lot of sites that have some strange rules. I've been to a lot of sites searching for information only to find out the information has been deleted. Sometimes this can be very disappointing. What I don't do his tell the owner, members and moderators that what they are doing is wrong and demand that they do things my way.
I take the time to read the rules, the frequently asked questions and whatever terms of service is posted. More often then not the answers to most questions can found in previous threads. Same here. If you searched for the reasons why editing and deleting are not permitted in the general forums by non contributing members. There are a host of reasons why and it is beneficial for this website.
There are some forums on this site you can't edit or delete even if you are a contributing member. For the most part, this is a business related forum developed around the Board Of Inquiry forum located here
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...splay.php?f=13
and the rules for posting can be found here.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ead.php?t=8880
Some of those rules are site wide.
There are many things on this site that people may not be used to. The classifieds and the BOI require real full names to post in due to the nature of those forums.
It's important to understand the rules of each site you go to. Heck, I visited a really big (not related to reptiles) site not to long ago and posted a simple link to a news article. I was immediately banned for a week. I didn't know it wasn't allowed. It was my fault for not reading the TOS. Did I think getting banned from a site for a link was over the top? Well, yes but I didn't go telling their moderators how ridiculous this was and attacking the administrator. I got back on and found out the reasons why. They had their reasons outlined in their TOS. They didn't allow links, quoting of full articles on other websites or screen captures. They developed their rules to protect the site and it works for them. I will follow the site rules or I will not participate there. Pretty simple.
Same here. We don't allow everyone to edit and delete posts. We don't edit and delete posts no matter what in some forums. We have a policy that full names and locations are required in some forums.
We have Classified specific rules, individual forum rules and sitewide rules. Work within them if you want to use this site or just go somewhere else. It's not hard thing to grasp and seems much better than publicly demanding that someone change their rules on their property for you.