No, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat was not attacked by Cybermen whose credo is the term “delete.” He really did delete his Twitter account of his own volition.

Moffat, like many in the entertainment industry, has struggled to find the right tone on social media. When and how do you respond to and engage fans? How do you recognize a troll vs. someone who is not the most diplomatic in their 140 limited character message? Do you even take trolling comments on? These are all questions for which there is no right answer.

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Moffat has had his ups and downs with social media. At one point, Moffat used Twitter to combat accusations of misogyny when comments from a decade-old interview were taken out of context. On the other hand, Moffat has also been accused of being overly sensitive to constructive criticism and mistaking it for rudeness. An exchange over the background of River Song being bisexual revealed the writer’s testy side.

Fans first noticed that the account had gone missing in the wee hours last night when they attempted to reference Moffat’s account in their tweets about the latest episode, “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.” Speculation abounded that Moffat deleted the account because of heaps of negative commentary from fans. Despite the fact that Doctor Who is the most successful show in the U.K. today and was the number one downloaded show on iTunes in America in 2011, each week, Moffat is known to get heaps of insulting tweets from fans telling him that he has failed as the showrunner. He has commented in various interviews that if he listened to Twitter, he would be led to believe that he couldn’t write at all, and has urged cast members to stay off the Internet reading about themselves because the commentary can be brutal.

Sue Vertue, Steven Moffat’s wife and at times creative partner, commented on her own Twitter. She alludes to the medium being a distraction.

For all asking @stevenmoffat is well and currently having a family lunch but he’s got a huge amount on and twitter was proving a distraction — sue vertue (@suevertue) September 9, 2012

Though, the Steven Moffat Twitter is currently gone, those belonging to Caroline Skinner (executive producer), Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, and various other cast members are still intact.

Will you miss Steven Moffat on Twitter?