I know I'm coming in late on this, I've been on vacation!
Artist, thanks for bringing this up, and mods, thanks working on a solution. I have, in the past, received an email notification of a post, gone to the thread, and not found the post. The ones I remember from recently, I can well understand why they would have been edited or removed, whether by a mod or the poster, since they were, well, virulent, is about the best word I can come up with. But it definitely made it odd, having received the emailed post that then turns out not to be there. Rather like the poem:
Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today
Oh how I wish he'd go away.

Having some kind of acknowledgement in the thread will definitely get rid of the problem of the "man who wasn't there."
Hugs,