Users have rights. If the community decides something they've done is bad, they can't get mad. If one person in the sky that they can't see decides they've done something bad, oh boy will they get mad. And they'll take anyone attached to that thread with them. You thought there was a lot of drama when it came to public attention that editors edit titles? Just wait until they start killing topics that have generated 30+ comments. And any drama that comes from that (topics like "omg goodbye 2 u hackr news i are leaving") can't be killed otherwise it would look like blatant censorship and would make even more people mad.
A counterbalance to this sort of thing that works is a community action, not an admin action.
A one way to implement the community action is to add downarrows. But when someone downvotes a story, the story karma is unaffected. It's only when the story has more downvotes than upvotes that the editors get the option to kill that topic. So that way, the community has decided something is offtopic, but the editor still uses his good judgment about killing a story. I don't see how users could get upset under that sort of arrangement.
A counterbalance to this sort of thing that works is a community action, not an admin action.
A one way to implement the community action is to add downarrows. But when someone downvotes a story, the story karma is unaffected. It's only when the story has more downvotes than upvotes that the editors get the option to kill that topic. So that way, the community has decided something is offtopic, but the editor still uses his good judgment about killing a story. I don't see how users could get upset under that sort of arrangement.