bcheung wrote:"Because it isn't about WW issues" is not the reason the thread was removed.
"Because the thread was becoming too much work for the moderators" is the reason the thread was moved.
... sounds like that was a big reason to me
quoted from the mods post...
"As we would like to maintain the focus on WW issues (let's face it, most of the bikes on this forum cannot be raced in a UCI race), we would kindly request all of you to refrain from starting new pro threads. Even in chat. Any new threads that are opened to mirror the now defunct pro thread will be locked and deleted."
sounds like YET AGAIN another case of the confusing mods.
and really, was the banter on the previous pro thread really THAT bad??? Others have said it as well... even if you did think it started to go off topic, it came back around - particularly around the big races - and I actually thought it was one of the best cases of self policing on the internets.

There are a whole lot worse out there! I could see their point if every page contained people wanting to bring up doping, etc., but the recent mod intervention of "pictures only" was worse than the so called problematic discussion of said parts. The thread was never a "gallery" so discussion about parts posted had to have been assumed. Is it only after several hundred pages, they realized that people were mucking up their gallery???
and (finally), the whole "it's a private place" argument is bunk! It's a FORUM! The etymology of the word goes back to the Roman gathering place (usually in or around a market) for public discussion. As soon as you start a "forum," it is inherently public - like it or not. If you are not open to discussion, debate, or other's opinions (or whether they include a picture or not) a forum is not the right venture... start a blog and disable the comments.