Something's weird here, I'm not buying the auto delete idea.
CO2 just had a thread locked for asking the mods what gives. Why do that unless the site is going through another user/mod battle? We've had many of these before. Mod locks thread, everyone annoyed at being treated like child, multiple threads (some of them funny and some not) get started about mods, warnings doled out like candy, tedious passive aggressive BS until the weekend rolls around and we all remember we have lives.
The thing is there often was a reason for the initial lock. Many times the mods had warned users about what annoyed them. Does anyone remember what the last post was about?
My personal theory is that a mod got fat fingered and deleted the thread by accident but no one wants to own up to it. A "not in front of the enlisted men" type of deal.