Can an administrator delete topics/posts for any reason?

Sounds to me like he doesn't have a leg to stand on... Let's face it, as an admin you can smite/delete posts at will, as and when you choose to. Sure, it's polite to say why beforehand, but there's no necessity there other than common courtesy...

For him to suggest you have somehow stepped over the line seems to me pretty absurd... If you had altered his text, then perhaps, perhaps he might have a flimsy reason for complaint, but to delete it in order that no one else copies his text leaves me thinking the guy is living in cloud cuckoo land if he has a problem with that...

That is only a personal opinion, mind...

I think you've totally made the right choice, no matter what he may claim... ;-D

You're an admin, he's not even a member - why would you care about his opinion?
This just sounds like attention-seeking from someone who didn't get the desired response when they flounced out the door.

Since the material was deleted there is no recourse for the former Member. A Forum does not have to publish someone else's material. Indeed a Forum can go away at any time and cease to exist. However Duties of a Admin should be spelled out by your Forum Staff. On my Forum I run a separate Forum for the Staff to discuss Admin actions. In it is a list of Moderator actions. (following) however my Main Forum has a Rules area that tells individuals that Posts can be deleted/edited for offensive/illegal content if the Terms of the Forum are violated.

There are various types of Moderation actions available.
At the opening Post to a topic you will have a drop down box that gives you the option to:

Stick/unstick a Topic- This should be used to keep a Topic at the top of a Category when the material is of enough interest that it bear doing so. As the Topic looses relevancy it can be unstuck. We can discuss in Mod lounge if anyone feels a Topic deserves being "stuck" but I am cool with anyone making the decision on their own.
 
Lock Topic- meaning of course, no new posts in that Thread will be allowed. In my opinion this should be done when a argument begins to happen and it does not respond to warning to the participants. Also a Topic could be locked if it should somehow make no sense to have any more posts added.

Move Topic- When a Topic has been posted in the wrong Category it can be moved to a more appropriate place.

Delete Topic- Should only rarely be needed, it can be helpful when someone post in error and requests the post be removed or when the post violates Forum guidelines. BTW on this, I do not worry about the occasional profanity myself but there can be younger folks access the site so we should watch going too far over the line.

Spam- Rather self explanatory.

Edit post- This is available for your own postings only. It is being discussed at Lefora Support if the ability to edit other posters is going to be an option. I feel that there is only a few times that this may be appropriate.

Not available to Moderators but to Admins is the ability to Remove a Member. I feel this should be always be by discussion of Staff unless it is concerning a Spammer.

-mattb4

Thank you, everyone.  That settles it in my mind.

and for other admins to take note.

On lefora, if a member deletes their profile, we tell them that we'll delete all personal information, and assigning their posts to guests, but that the posts will be left up since other people replied to them in a conversation and it would be inappropriate to remove those posts.  If a member wants specific posts deleted, they should contact the admin before deleting their profile.

What you did is fine markcrowel, i'm just posting this info for curious admins.

and for other admins to take note.
On lefora, if a member deletes their profile, we tell them that we'll delete all personal information, and assigning their posts to guests, but that the posts will be left up since other people replied to them in a conversation and it would be inappropriate to remove those posts.  If a member wants specific posts deleted, they should contact the admin before deleting their profile.
What you did is fine markcrowel, i'm just posting this info for curious admins.

-chief

I like that system, and in my admittedly limted experience I think it works very well... :-D

If you're going to storm out of a room, remember to take your stuff with you.