Airbrushing history on dKos with poll

When I load this site and I see a vacancy in the Rec list indicated by a lonely "by" with empty space above and below or I click on a diary and get a blank page, I get this strange, unpleasant feeling. In the case of the lonely 'by,' one can hunt back through recent open threads to unearth the title of the offending diary. It reminds me of graffiti that has been painted over but which is legible from a certain angle.

One way in which this is irritating is that the slot in the Rec list remains taken, just like the diaries which get frontpaged. The worse part is that it is anonymous and unexplained. When a diary gets frontpaged the editorial staff indicate who did it and, if necessary, why. When something gets wiped, there is no signature, no explanation, just a gap.

The last link I clicked on claimed to be a diary about how Al Qaeda was a Republican creation. Such a title could cover a range of opinions, some of which would be beyond the pale. Still, there should not have been a blank page, even if the diarist pulled the story themselves. It is too easy to airbrush history in cyberspace.