What could possibly appear more self-absorbed than censoring without comment, recourse, or discussion, for the purpose of promoting a certain image?
I'm not convinced this is a serious question. If you spent 2 minutes writing down ways to appear self-absorbed, do you honestly think you would not come up with a better plan? If your answer is "no", then we need to move way back to find common ground.
The mission of the LessWrong discussion board is not to collect pictures of funny cats. Deleting pictures of funny cats does not stifle dissent. Deleting pictures of funny cats does not obstruct the search for the Truth. Deleting pictures of funny cats does not make you look self-absorbed, even if you do so explicitly to cultivate a better image.
I guess it comes down to a question: was the original post deleted without comment because it was just another "funny cat" posting, or was it deleted without comment because it parodied a funny cat who is taken gigantically seriously around here.
I do know that at the time it was deleted it had fairly positive karma. I do know that on its face it did not appear to be a funny cat post, that is, it referred to a lot of the same things that acceptable posts refer to as opposed to being completely unrelated to the kinds of things the site is intended to discuss.
I honestly don't have any idea who or how or why it was deleted. At least for me, that is part of the problem.
My stupid fanfic chapter was banned without explanation so I reposted it; somehow it was at +7 when it was deleted and I think silently deleting upvoted posts is a disservice to LessWrong. I requested that a justification be given in the comments if it were to be deleted again, so LessWrong readers could consider whether or not that justification is aligned with what they want from LessWrong. Also I would like to make clear that this fanfic is primarily a medium for explaining some ideas that people on LessWrong often ask me about; that it is also a lighthearted critique of Yudkowskyanism is secondary, and if need be I will change the premise so that the medium doesn't drown out the message. But really, I wouldn't think a lighthearted parody of a lighthearted parody would cause such offense.
The original post has been unbanned and can be found here, so I've edited this post to just be about the banning.