Visible to members 2 posts above this one are 4 entries like:
1 post was split to Offtopic about moderation.
I missed what was posted, but the discussion remains “civil” and on-topic. Thank you! I feel comfortable posting here, which is what matters to me. I’ll hang around because of that. 👍️
In phpBB, readers would not see that posts have been removed. For readers, it looks like a normal discussion without the breaks.
In the old DSLR forum, you could see “Your moderator at work” where posts have been moved. It’s a judgment call, as some moderators like it “clean”, while others like to see that an action has been taken.
Separately - Remember that moderators have two purposes - (1) To keep the discussions civil and (2) to ensure the discussion stays focused on the topic at-hand.
If the discussion strays from its intended purpose, readers have a hard time following the topic and the overall quality of the discussion goes down. The moderator should decide if (1) the different topic should be split into a new discussion or (2) close the discussion (lock the topic) and stop it there. It’s OK to close topics for this reason.