Neil,
Food for thought. On a forum I've run for a decade or so (actually handed it off and don't mess with it anymore), we had a community policy that once a thread was over x responses, then the thread starter couldn't delete it anymore, because in doing so, s/he deletes not only their post, but any communications, ideas, etc., posted in replies to the thread.
Just throwing that out as something you might want to consider here.
Food for thought. On a forum I've run for a decade or so (actually handed it off and don't mess with it anymore), we had a community policy that once a thread was over x responses, then the thread starter couldn't delete it anymore, because in doing so, s/he deletes not only their post, but any communications, ideas, etc., posted in replies to the thread.
Just throwing that out as something you might want to consider here.