Something that other forums I go to do, to make sure topics aren't permanently wiped off the face of the Earth.

Simply make a sub-forum invisible to everyone but Admins, where deleted topics are sent. From then on, every time a topic is deleted, it simply goes to the invisible sub-forum. Now, anytime a topic is deleted with no justice, it can simply be moved back to the original forum.

...

That's exactly what they've always been doing.

It's called the Junk section.

The reason THOR removed so much permanently was that he didn't move all the topics to Junk, he just deleted them.

Guess what! You're about TWO YEARS late!

This has been standard practice for longer than I've been on these forums.

THOR wiped because mods had generic permissions, which INCLUDED the ability to access the moderator control panel, and DELETE topics. That permission system has been changed. Only admins can actually delete now.

Also why did you JUST NOW make this topic? Did you not think the staff came up with a solution, oh, I don't know, within the first few HOURS of the event happening? Rather than over a month later?