I can see how mods and admins can delete the first post in a thread, but how can you empowers users to do it?

If there are no replies to the post then they can, however once it has replies they cannot. The reason for this is it would have to delete the replies as well, so essentially the user would be deleting other user's posts too.

Thought I read that here. Makes sense. Just wondered if that could be an option. Sometimes people start threads (with good intentions) and they go bad. Instead of me deleting, I like giving them the power themselves.

I'd advise against it, in the long run it could get even uglier (IMHO) Better for a real Mod/Admin to manage it then left to the whim of normal users.

Would be great if we could all get along well, but reality dictates otherwise at times. Typing a message is so impersonal that even good meaning can sometimes be read wrong and chaff someone.