There was a thread called What happened to karpov, and the whole dang thing appears to have been disappeared by the admins... not even locked! -- Vanished. It seemed to me that the thread was civil. It was argumentative and could probably be called a big waste of time for all involved myself included (and of course Reb was wrong about Botvinnik ) but is there some new standard of conduct on the chess.com forums I"m not aware of -- or did I simply miss something truly ugly?

What happened to what happened to karpov?

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/what-happened-to-karpov

My guess is OP closed account

I mean the BlackBMW kid. He'll be back with another one.

That was a good, informative thread. So, someone closes their account and everybody loses what was written in their threads? Sounds stupid to me, but I might be missing something.

Account closure erases threads? I didn't know that... we must never let Kurokug go! Think of the loss to western culture if "If you know" were to suddenly vanish. I suppose I could manually retype in the text from the hard-copy I keep, but it wouldn't be the same.

Yes, it's silly, loads of text missing. Well-thought-out prose cannot be retrieved. Pictures of pancakes. It's some sort of censorship without reason. Or the reason is when the OP is missing, all replies look silly.

kohai explained it a few times on my request. It still doesn't make too much sense :o)

It's monumentally stupid.  Honestly I've never heard of this happening with any out-of-the-box forum software.  My guess: chess.com succumbed to the "not invented here" anti-pattern, and created their own forum system.  At least they've gotten other stuff right, but between this, and the exceedingly high noise-to-signal ratio on these forums, and I think this is the one facet of chess.com that should be rebuilt from the ground up, including a sane reputation system.

Obligatory Karpov looking badass pic:

 I could see the logic that, if the OP left the site, their threads should get locked since they are no longer there to respond. However, it is really annoying that the threads disappear with the entire content.

Perhaps we could continue the Karpov /recently turned Botvinnik discussion here ? (I hope that JG27Pyth is not planning to leave the site.)

Come on, are we not going to see a continuation of that epic match between Reb and JG27Pyth ? Is someone dodging the fight ?

 Pffffft! Who cares....everyone knows Botvinnik and Euwe were the worst of the world champions anyway

What on earth would make you think I was leaving? I assure you if I'm going to make some grand narcissistic "no no, don't try to stop me... (pause) no don't try...*(pause) really no no I mean don't try to stop me I'm really really going (angry pause) ahem are you listening I'm leaving I really mean it..." -- sort of gesture, it'll be grand and narcissistic, not some lame little fizzle about a closed thread. 

As for -- Reb vs Pyth -- regarding Botvinnik... bleh! all the title-groupies will give Reb's ridiculous opinions more weight than they deserve just because he's a decent chess-player... I should point out that Reb's hero, Bobby Fischer, was an even better chess-player with even crazier opinions.

As for brilliantboy's:  "Pffffft! Who cares....everyone knows Botvinnik and Euwe were the worst of the world champions anyway."

I know when I'm being trolled and speaking of trolling, the ignorant negative opinions about Botvinnik don't surprise me, when you're obviously the most influential chess-player of the 20th century you're going to run into some haters.

I think that the resources the young people have nowadays play a big part in why there's noone in the top 100 over 45. They have resources and means of analyzing the old GMs could only dream about, and they have them while still young and getting better. They can play whenever they want at any time of the day or night for how long they want, no fiddling with pieces. 

Karpov also doesn't really look that healthy for his age, like a lot of people but unlike Kasparov. His lack of ambition was a further reason, and once he started slipping down maybe he got very paranoid and felt uncomfortable with playing any chess, especially if the best he can hope for is a shadow of what he used to be able for. So I guess it's the addition of a number of things together. 

Interestingly he's still rated higher than every female player apart from Judith Polgar.

Just speculating, but the OP showed up, posted a ton of inflamitory, troll-bait filled posts, and then is gone.  Maybe moved on, maybe shown the door.  Perhaps the powers that be just wanted his foul stench clear of the message boards.

Again, just speculating.

Got hijacked by the trolls!

Hmmm, can a thread started by a prolific troll really be hijacked trolls?

If you're still wondering what happened to Karpov's thread, I may as well confess I borrowed it to sew on a button.

I hope it was a "Karpov for FIDE President" button! 

that kid/adult was a real D***Head, so good for him and btw how the hell can that thread be 'informative' ? now don't forget cheater_1 closed his account but with demand/request erik open it up again and left it there.