Over-moderated? Yes. inner circle? No, i made few posts there but never deleted & i saw very few newcomers posts aren't deleted.
Yeah i am Completely agree with you. If newcomers posts meet the criteria of mining section then there's no problem with that. But i think those post were deleted by moderators which actually got no connections with mining related topics. Otherwise i think there's no reason to over moderate that section specially.
Its really necessary for our new users to realize that moderators are here to help us as a guard of those sections. Whatever they do its just for keeping those section effective. There's no way to think that they will discourage newcomers by over moderation. So its better to check before posting a thread on any section that its fair or not.