Okay, here are the facts.
1. A topic disappeared. The original poster claims that he has no idea how it happened.
2. I have stated that I had no knowledge of this occurrence and nothing to do with it.
3. Carter has stated on list that he, too, had nothing to do with it, also claiming he was in the process of writing a moderation message before being told he couldn't do so due to the thread being deleted.
4. It is possible for users to delete their own posts.
5. It is possible for anyone to lie, and the likelihood of a person telling the truth has to be taken into account when weighing their testimony.
So here are the possible conclusions I see:
1. The server really did have a hiccup. Everyone is telling the truth, and a weird thing happened.
2. I am lying, and I sneakily deleted the topic and am now trying to hide it. This runs counter to virtually everything I stand for, and I have never done this before, so there is little to no precedent. However, if the thread contained a great deal of hostility directed at me because of the way I operate, then a little suspicion might naturally fall on me. It should be mentioned, however, that this is not the first time I have dealt with negative opinion, and I have not deleted topics before. It's not impossible and can't be utterly ruled out, but it is not a probable conclusion based on available trends.
3. Carter is lying to the staff team, and consequently to the user base now, and sneakily deleted the topic instead of just moderating it as he claimed. Again, Carter does not have a history of bending facts or taking the law into his own hands this way, so while it's possible, it's not likely and there is little to no precedent to support it.
4. Alireza, in fact, is lying, and deleted his own topic in order to stir up further drama and unrest. Alireza, to my knowledge, has never done this before, and has not demonstrated a willingness to lie either for his own gain or in pursuit of what he might see as the greater good. However, the topic in question was essentially a means of garnering hostility toward at least one member of the staff team, and as far as I'm aware, there's no record of who deletes a topic, so this might be a foolproof way to cast more doubt either on me directly, or on the staff team as a whole, with virtually no risk. I do think the likelihood that Alireza is lying is quite low, but it's not impossible either. It is no more or less ridiculous than either point #2 or point #3.
5. Some as-yet-unnamed member of the staff team with the ability to delete topics did it, and has not yet owned up to it. This is possible as well, but given our general propensity for closing over deleting - and there is precedent for this, see Ironcross's thread about trying to get Mason kicked out of here - it would appear unlikely.
Here's what I will tell you though. If there is a way that we can somehow trace who deleted a topic - if there's some sort of internal log somewhere that we can access - we will try and pursue this to the best of our ability. If someone really did attempt to silence Alireza this way, I'm not in favour of the method in which it was handled. At the same time, if Alireza did this in hopes to make people look worse, that's an action done in extremely bad faith and may warrant punishment in its own right. If anyone has any information on this that you can verify, I urge you to come forward with it just as soon as you can. You will not be punished for disclosing information, and if you require anonymity in exchange for said disclosure, I can provide that for you. Please, please do not come forward with info unless it is somehow verifiable, and whatever you do, don't lie in order to further an agenda you support, as that will lead to even worse situations. We're not going to go off half-cocked here and nail anyone to the wall without sufficient evidence, but I don't feel right about shrugging my shoulders and just walking away, either.
Check out my Manamon text walkthrough at the following link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z8ls3rc3f4mkb … n.txt?dl=1