Hi GreyGhost:
The little symbols reveal themselves if you hold your pointer over them for a second or two. Not sure what you mean by "in the two left columns," I'll address the ones under the info about you. Here are what they stand for, although a couple of them might be visible only to a moderator:
The circle shows whether or not you are on line - dark circle means offline.
The two rectangles (one yellow, the other red) may be only for moderators - it allows a mod to assign an infraction.
The triangle and ! is the RTM button - Report to Moderator - allows you to ID a post that needs to be investigated
The small world is your IP address.
Now for the second part of your question - posts do not disappear. It's ECCIE policy. Any post that is removed is saved in a special file available to mods only. But regular threads are left to be viewed for anyone who enjoys history, I guess...LOL! Individuals can only edit a post for an hour. After that, only a mod can edit a post.
I hope that answers your questions.
Cheers!
JaG
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