This is actually incorrect... The reason why sometimes valid comments are deleted is because we allow sellers to moderate their own auctions. The primary goal of this feature was to allow sellers to remove spam, or hateful remarks promptly, without having to wait hours (or even days, if its a weekend) for a moderator to remove it for them.

As you point out though, some sellers are abusing this feature to delete legitimate comments/questions. Obviously, and as you point out, this is not the intended use for the self-moderation feature. I would certainly hope that a potential buyer who does not have his all questions answered would not bid -- that's why we strongly encourage all buyers to conduct proper due diligence & we even provide a help guide to assist *everyone* in asking all the right questions.

I don't think any Internet source, whether eBay, Craigslist, or another forum is a 100% safe venue for purchases. It's always up to the buyer to conduct proper due diligence and to take all precautions necessary -- we do our best to educate buyers on how to do that. Ask lots of questions. Speak on the phone. Get a *real* name and address. Use escrow. Sign a contract. Get references and call them up. etc.

@EQWebHost: I'm sorry you had a bad experience in our community. Unfortunately, with 120,000+ members I can't personally ensure that everyone has a positive experience everytime (especially given how easy it is for misunderstandings to occur online).

That being said, if you were personally attacked in the forums, please do report the posts to us and it will be dealt with very promptly. Repeated personal attacks are a legitimate reason to ban people, and we have done it many times in the past.

We'd love to have you back.

Cheers,
Matt Mickiewicz
SitePoint Co-Founder.