But posts that did not contain insults were deleted as off topic. Posts that contained things that might have been termed insults if you stretched a point a LOT, were deleted as 'Off topic," not as violating terms of service.

Because:

if you have a certain number of "off topic" posts, you can have your posting restricted.

I received a number of frantic PM's from a moderator after Mako was outed (the first, within minutes of the posting of his identity) telling me that all of my posts were correctly deleted. When I responded by sending one that was not off topic, was not insulting, and yet was deleted as "off topic," the response I got was "Maybe it was off topic in the context." How can a post that is about the company whose message board it is on EVER be "off topic," especially when it is refuting a false statement someone else made?

Draw your own conclusions.