Is it bad practice to delete an apologizing post that gets hateful responses?

Question

During the summer of 2016, thrash metal band Megadeth was supposed to perform in a major festival in Hungary. In the last minute, the concert was canceled, because of a minor injury. It was hardly justifiable, because of the circumstances, which also included that the injured member was ready to perform, it was only the frontman, Dave Mustine, who decided to leave.

It was an extremely controversial situation (I was also at the place when it happened) and as a response Mustaine had an apologizing post on his Facebook page. However, as it was expectable, he got quite rude comments. I wouldn't say it extreme, but still, audience had no much forgiveness.

Almost surely because of it, he deleted the post some days later.

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Is it good or bad practice?

I'd say good, because keeping access to comments depicting hatred can be harmful in a long-term.

I'd also say it's bad, because it's god damn lampshading. Pretending as if nothing happened, expressing no respect towards the audience.

Answer 1

We cannot answer that with certainty.

1. He apologized because he felt that was the right thing to do.
2. He got a lot of hateful comments.

Did the comments make him realize that his apology was not the right thing to do? In that case retracting it seems the obvious thing to do.

Did he just get fed up with the comments, but he still felt the apology was appropriate? Then he should stand by his action and leave the post up. Otherwise the message that he wants to send his fans/audience disappears.

In this case he could have done something about the comments instead of the post, like closing/blocking/hiding/removing them (or ask someone to do so).

Answer 2

Allowing all kinds of comments, and only editing ones that violate a site's TOS shows that the administrator or owner is transparent to criticism. This builds member trust, and the reputation capital earned is healthy for a site of forum that uses this tactic.