If that thread is supposed to be a record then posts should never be deleted in order to preserve the history. Either allow the thread to function as a thread that is self moderated and has a full history or just delete the whole thing. A thread with deleted posts is useless to read for those that do not refresh it 20 times daily because many posts will be missing and does not represent an accurate history.
Indeed posts should not be deletable. 'Til this basic notion manages to get a foothold however, you're pretty much stuck quoting that which you respond to.
Self-moderated threads are even more retarded an idea; if I wanted to see public discussion of X's product
according to X, I'd read their diary. This is a forum.
Actually, I might make a small summer project that automatically copies posts from major security people to bitmessege! Would anyone be interested?
Who are you and what qualifies you to identify who is and who is not a "major security person"? See the problem?