I think this discussion can be great for the board as a whole, as long as we remember to be open minded etc.

I do believe that closing threads/removing posts is sometimes necessary. Often I close/remove threads at the request of the poster or someone who was offended by it. Sometimes if a thread is getting contentious I close it until I can get to it to read through it more carefully later -- IE when I was at the doctor earlier this week and I couldn't get to read through everything at once.