riksea, "I've never seen such a dysfunctional board..."
If you look around IHub you will find that many-MANY stock forums have been completely co-opted and taken over by EITHER pumpers or bashers, who have become entrenched as the mods and the several asst-mods. They advance and protect their specific agenda by deleting the posts of their "adversaries" and even banning them from the forum.
Apparently, they engage in this activity opently, and with the tacit approval, and under the protection, of the site admins, under the guise of the TOS rules. If YOU don't see and understand this is going on then you better pay closer attention because your own money is at stake here.
Just for giggles, I suggest you should check out the ESSO forum posting log and count up the number of deleted posts. Then just post a simple enquiry as to WHY these posts were deleted. Of course, just posting a question about other posts is, in itself, a TOS violation. So, most likely, your simple question will also be deleted. I believe that this will prove my point.
Good Luck.
bbd