It's not a question of "avoid[ing] the controversy".

Mike's a good poster, but he made a mistake on this one. He didn't get a bad delete for it, I simply removed it.

You actually stated the controversy, “keep it up and get accused of contributing” or “take it down and stifling discussion.”

Again, it is not criticism, you have a hard job and threading that needle as a moderator is an imperfect science. I do think that in this case, it was such a perfect example of objectification, and the responses were so appropriate, that it actually would’ve been one of those salient lessons for those on the board for whom it isn’t so obvious

...poster. Whatever value there is to be had in keeping it up as an example of what not to do is outweighed by the value in giving said poster a mulligan.

Frankly I'm just glad there seems to be near universal agreement that it's not the type of thing we want happening here.

We're a long way from the oYo days.

That the downside would be that it is at his expense