I pay no attention whatsoever to the slymepit as I prefer to avoid cesspools full of raging assholes. My initial response, given my affinity for Avi and the source of the accusations, was to dismiss it as much ado about nothing. I believed, with very little thought or effort to confirm,...
So, you're saying that you dismissed the allegations which were accompanied with copious evidence because you dislike the people making them.
...the initial speculation that someone had either gotten his password or that it was the result of some sort of technical glitch.....
And then, you immediately started coming up with excuses for your friend.
...Then I got an email from Hemant Mehta, someone I also hold in high esteem and consider a friend, and he told me that he’d been looking into the evidence and found a powerful case for plagiarism...
Finally, when someone you like tells you that the accusation are backed up by evidence, you then decide to look.
I don't think you know how to do skepticism. Facts are facts, no matter who tells them to you. Perhaps you will learn from this and give up your little in-group thinking, but I wouldn't bet on it.
