10 years

[GeneralHankerchief]

I'm confident enough in my knowledge of what happened. I'm also tired of the mantra how everything was fine and dandy and those two inexplicably decided to leave, leaving the rest of the staff aghast and surprised because of the unprovoked move. And now everyone wants them back.

Then your confidence is misplaced.

I'm going to make an assumption, and please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, that your perceived knowledge of what happened came directly from private messaging with Louis.

I know this is difficult to do considering the party involved and his relationship to you and this forum, but if you examine the source from a nonbiased perspective, as a historian would do, then it doesn't quite hold up to increased scrutiny.

Assuming your best source is Louis, you're getting a primary source, which is obviously very valuable when examining the greater picture, but only as a part of the whole and not as a standalone. Assuming Louis was contacting you as the entire thing was reaching its later stages, or even somewhat after that, you have to take into account the fact that he wouldn't have any incentive to provide a detached, dispassionate account of what was going on. He would be venting to his friends. As would all of us.

It's why I'm getting a little twigged at all these cries of "slander" from all of those whose sources are presumably Louis and what happened in the Watchtower threads at the time; they're presumably all originating from one single source. From someone else's point of view, it could easily be turned around and I could say the same thing to those who are directing it as a kind of dolchstoßlegende against staff at the time. Slander is a matter of perception.

The alternative to this is that you and others received leaks of what was discussed in staff forums directly from Louis or someone else, in which case the leaker would be in gross violation of the moderator code of conduct we all agreed to and which Beskar posted earlier in the thread.