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The past few days have been kind of a whirlwind on the SE network. I'm not sure there's a brief summary of events anywhere, but this meta post provides the best I've seen yet. The tl;dr version is that StackExchange summarily fired a moderator for a very questionable reason in a very public and disrespectful manner, and then responded to the fairly enormous backlash with a pithy non-apology. There have been quite a large number of mods who have resigned, taken leaves of absences, or written public responses condemning the actions of SE, including a very well-written one by StrongBad elsewhere on this site.

With all that as background, I'm going to be taking a leave of absence as a response to these events. I hope that SE reconsiders its actions and thinks very carefully about the behaviors they hope to encourage in their communities.

Note: I returned to active status on 11/26 as described in this follow-up post.

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    I'm sorry to hear that you are feeling a need to take a leave of absence, and hope that you will come back soon. My own take on the situation is in an answer to @StrongBad's post: academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4589/22733
    – jakebeal
    Oct 5, 2019 at 2:50
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    I am not a moderator, but I'm also leaving all the but most technical sites. Cannot support the direction this is taking..
    – user104070
    Oct 8, 2019 at 23:53
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    I am also quitting.
    – Boris Bukh
    Oct 8, 2019 at 23:56
  • Are you back now?
    – user111388
    Jun 5, 2020 at 15:27
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    @user111388 - Please see this post describing my return. Thanks for the nudge to add that follow-up to this one.
    – eykanal
    Jun 5, 2020 at 17:50
  • @eykanal: Thank you! I had indeed not noticed the other post, just only saw some comment or answer fromn you.
    – user111388
    Jun 5, 2020 at 22:05

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As a non-mod I don't have insights into what actually transpired here, so I can't well evaluate what's really going on. The bits and pieces I pick up (or read between the lines) are troublesome, but not enough for me to pick up the pitchfork. Especially - again, keep in mind that I can only read between the lines of what is written publicly - I am not sure I can agree with your statement that the mod in question was fired "for a very questionable reason", although I most definitely agree that it was done in an unnecessarily "public and disrespectful manner".

That said, people who I respect (like StrongBad and Eykanal!) with more information about the matter seem highly upset, so that's a strong signal for me. I'll keep my eyes open and decide how I want to relate to this community going forward.

In any case, thank you both StrongBad and Eykanal for your service to this community, and I hope to see both of you come back eventually!

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    Thank you, I appreciate it. I definitely plan on returning. Re: "what happened", you are correct, not everything is public. Still, we each must act as we see fit based on our understanding. That said, I strongly encourage people to take breaks rather than leave... remember, we serve the community, not the SE organization. I'd hate to see the community die because the landowner misbehaves.
    – eykanal
    Oct 10, 2019 at 15:53

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