Of course. But do remember that some people simply don't take disagreement well, and even perfectly calm differences of opinion can make them react aggressively since they take it personally. In a perfect world this would never happen. I think we've got more chance of getting a bids column than we have of getting a forum completely free of arguments.
I'm perfectly happy for them to remove threads that become unpleasant. The one in particular had a single poster attacking all who disagreed with him, and removing only those posts would have been tricky and time-consuming. It's a bit disappointing that those who happened to be on the same side of the discussion (pro bids column) didn't object to his offensiveness until after the thread was removed. Perhaps if the people on that side of the discussion had tried calming him down at once the thread would still be there.But I do wish ebid would stop removing whole threads, it just puts people off posting, and busy forums are the sign of a busy site!