Can a first post in a thread be removed and the thread not die?

[carubmun]

Or better yet... can i exchange the user who started a thread for another user?

Lets say user Danny started a "Welcome to my Forum" thread.
Now that thread has been going on for 3 years and has collected 50 thousands views and 10 thousand posts, etc...

When running an activity mod such as vbExperience, Danny would skyrocket up the rankings due to the views and replies to his original thread.
Now i know that i could disable such features in vbexperience, or i could make it so Danny isnt affected by the mod, and i can also deny the forum where that thread resides in from being counted.
I dont want to do either of those because they would put a damper on the whole reason why i use that mod.

What i would like to do is take one of my bot accounts that i use for posting news items, and switch him in for Danny in that particular "Welcome to my Forum" thread".

Is this possible?

Thanks ahead of time.