the topic was removed by the original poster.
I was kind of hoping this thing would die, but thanks for ressurecting it. Sigh.

From the outside looking in, since I completely and totally missed this and was not aware until OP brought it to my attention, is that he's concerned that he was just able to delete the topic and avoid possible punishment, which is the same tactic Mahdi used a while back.

@5, this isn't back-seat admining at all. I was not awear of this either until I saw it, and from the outside looking it does look worse than it probably is. It sends a message to those who aren't aware of these things that if someone breaks a rule and then deletes the topic, no punishment will be handed out, and therefore that person can violate as many rules as they like and not get punished for it. I can see people violating the copyright/no cracks rule this way too: someone creates a topic, posts a link to a crack, waits until some people have acquired it and then they delete the topic and boom, they don't ever get punished (even if a bystander saw the topic and reported it like the OP is doing here). Your right: Liam is no fool. But Liam is no god, either. As a community it is our responsibility to help admins and point out possible errors and mistakes they've made, just as they might do for us members.

I went with the benefit of the doubt here and assume that Liam saw the topic and didn’t give a moderator warning because he was waiting for another staff member to agree with him before he took action, which still might be true. I just wanted to make sure that it did not get swept under the rug and that someone definitely saw it so that something could be done about it. I was not backseat moderating and had absolutely no intention to do so; I am obligated as a member of this forum to report things if somebody breaks the rules, as is everybody else. I’m just doing what I was told to do.

Update: it looks like me and Liam posted at the same time, so now I definitely have confirmation that he was waiting for another staff members approval. The reason I opted to make this post in the first place is because I have absolutely no idea what was going on behind the scenes. Yes, as it turns out you did talk to other staff members, but I didn’t know that. For all I know, since the topic was deleted it could’ve been determined by a majority of staff members to let it slide. It does also say in the rules to let at least 24 hours pass before reporting something that the staff members probably know about already, so for being too quick on the trigger I apologize. However, I have no regrets. I did want him to get a warning, as I would want with everybody else if they did something like that. I’m trying to help the developer of this game, and I’m trying to help the moderatorsNot only because the rules tell me to but because everything I do is an attempt to help everyone else. I get no personal gain from reporting someone I hardly know to the moderators for breaking the rules; the only thing I gain out of it is knowing that I helped, which is what matters in the end.

moderation:
For the record, I was said other staff member who agreed with Liam's opinion that this had already gone far enough.
Do I think what Redfox did was incredibly stupid? Why of course.
We wanted to walk with the benefit of the doubt on this one, however let it be said that those who make a habit of (two times or more) deleting threads to cover up transgressions, will be dealt with incredibly heavy-handedly. It may be a good idea to revise the rules here?

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. In the future there's also the report link which doesn't necessarily have to be used on a specific post. This way all admins are able to see your message.

Hi!
I do see where op is coming from, and I also do agree that what I said was kind of stupid.
My sense of humor and others definitely do not aline in most cases, and it was late and I thought it would be funny.

One thing I don't understand is why you are so adamant that it was a cover up. No no no, the whole thing was a joke from the start.
As pointed out in my posts on that topic, it had been a mere 6 hours sense that game had been released, noone can finish that that fast.

I saw the topic get way out of hand in the first 3 posts and atempted to stop it there, but people kept going with it.
I'm ok to admit that it was, in a sense, slander and I understand why people were mad, but what I don't understand is why people made a huge ddeal of it and didn't try to talk to me sensibly. I believe Liam was one of the few that tried to, but was overwhelmed by the others calling me a fucking stupid idiot or whatever... And I'm supposed to be 14?

Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure op was also quite calm with me too... Good job, buddy.

TLDR: this whole situation sparked from a, self perceived, inconsequential joke that people took way to far.
I deleted the topic because multiple people pressed for it and I decided I didn't want to deal with those people freaking out at a joke like that.

Also, a point was raised that someone might see the topic and believe it to be true, thus robbing Aaron of a sale.
My response to this is: There is a main topic, that will probably be 350 pages again, and you think that one little post, especially with the fact that it was a joke plainly pasted 4 posts later, would be that game changer? Come on.

Completely understood and I should've explained myself better in that topic, deleting it did look fishy, and maybe edditing my op further to explain myself would've been smart.

In the spirit of apologizing, I need to do the same for Liam for what I said in post 3. I interpreted post 2 as you not caring, so I'm sorry about that. I meant nothing personal by it.

@redfox yeah but the thing is, even if it was a joke, your humor doesn't align well with other people', and you should know that by now.

@OP Really? Just... freaking really. I don't even know what to say right now, I have this picture in my head of a little kid being a complete nuisance because his bigger brother did something he probably shouldn't, but not too terrible, but the parents drop the hammer on the big brother because the little one is being so annoying about it. That's what you're doing. I also see some things never change, flying off the handle and posting this topic, what good did it do? Not a bit of it. If you were concerned, you could just drop a mail or PM a mod, not come out pumping your chest like a gorilla.

Obviously it did do some good, because it got the moderators attention. Glad to know it’s wrong for me to try to help, thanks for making me look like the bad guy.

Righto, so a few things.

First, I confess that I spent a lot of the weekend playing manamon and really only reading the threads that concerned me. I'll go ahead and own that right here and now. I have to learn to check my private messages more often because after reading this thread, I saw that I had a few and I need to respond to some of them. Really wish there were some way to know when you have a new message. That's on me, guys. I apologize.

I did actually see Redfox's original thread, and was in the process of roasting him and even suggesting that a warning be levied against him, but when I went to post, I got an error, which told me the thread would be deleted. At this point, I felt much the same way Carter and Liam did (the harm had been done and essentially admitted to). I didn't like it at all, and I think it is unreasonable to assume that we're going to let rules slide just because you delete the thread. In fact, I think there's even a bit in the rules that says that thread or post deletion or editing doesn't necessarily mean you're immune to the rules you break originally.

Redfox, I have difficulty believing your "humour" was in good faith, but whether it was or not, it was in terrible taste, so thank you for admitting that and taking down the thread. It probably wasn't going to do any catastrophic harm, but it was needless. We all say and do things we shouldn't sometimes, so I hope we can learn from this.

Guys, maybe lay off DanGero a bit. If he did try to reach out to me, and I said nothing, then no wonder he thought this was being ignored. Whistleblowing is understandable if there is a legitimate issue to talk about. I do not want to start up the expectation that you can't bring valid things to our attention. The first and best way to do this is to write a report or contact one of the staff team privately though; I'd say this sort of escalation, where you make a topic and draw attention to it, should only be done if you're fairly convinced that wrong is being done and you feel the need to expose it. This should not be a hair-trigger decision.