I think the "constructiveness" of that last comment in particular is tenuous at best. I see rather hostile accusations about "reading the OP's mind" along with allegations that one of our most respected members effectively "doesn't understand the way SE works." Moreover, calling an OP "lazy" is borderline rude. Even the rhetorical question in the initial comment ("Do you really believe the OP knows what he is talking about?") could be regarded as belittling.
I won't delve into details here, but I will say that the mod team discussed these comments privately and there was widespread agreement that, in this case, comment removal resulted in an overall improvement. The main concern was not whether or not Nathan might be offended by the comments, but how others in the community might perceive these comments, to include the so-called lazy OP who presumably "does not know what he is talking about." Coupled with the belligerent and authoritative tone of these comments, we felt it was better to simply remove them than to make a sidebar conversation go on even longer.
I think a better response to the comment deletion would have been to take a more balanced and objective look at the comments, rather than republish them here, and see if maybe they were perhaps not quite as polite and constructive as maybe they could have or should have been. I would suggest that a little more humble openness, and a little less belligerent insistence, could go a long way.
As for that "demand" of a resignation, I don't think any in the mod team plan on stepping down. Personally, I am rather saddened by that knee-jerk reaction. Since our recent election, I feel like the moderation team is stronger than it has ever been. I'd like to take this opportunity to laud the rest of the moderation team, and add that it's really a shame when such acrid comments are made toward a small team that is working so hard to keep things running smoothly.
