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One moderator suspended activity

'm a mod on Academia.SE. After reading the official SE response, I'm going to temporarily suspend my mod activities as well. The disrespect being shown to a well-respected volunteer simply trying to understand what is going on, combined with the terrible handling of the actual firing, combined with the non-apology apology, are a bit over the top.

I encourage The Powers That Be™ to reconsider all their actions here, and think deeply about the types of behavior they want to encourage in their community.

Another one wrote A request for SE employees and CMs User Apparente was suspended That user was very nice and insightful, wonder what happened.

Everything I read it seems like moderators knew from the start of this year that something is going wrong, however they proceed with election for new moderators. When I asked one user why she didn't apply for a position, she told me that big troubles are coming, now I understand on what she implied, however, if you all knew that why moderators kept us in dark? We as ordinary users how should react to these new changes on SE, are we somehow affected? are our identities and location sold to third parties now? Also moderators that suspend their activities commented or implied that they will come back, so what is the issue than?

We as the users are confused and would like to know more about the situation.

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    At this point I think this has really been talked to death, especially on the main SE meta. There is no conspiracy of moderators hiding information, beyond the information that they (we) are ethically required to hide (for example, the contents of private conversation, reasons for user suspensions). Since moderators can't talk about users' suspensions, it's also a bit rude to bring one up here.
    – Bryan Krause Mod
    Nov 22, 2019 at 17:22
  • I don't use meta. Most of us don't.
    – SSimon
    Nov 23, 2019 at 3:30
  • 1
    What is the point of this question? It reads as if you want somebody else to think and tell you what to do. Do you feel affected by the drama? Do you care about the Monica? If you feel you get more positive out of this site then you feel negative, then stay. Otherwise you can just leave the site.
    – user115896
    Nov 23, 2019 at 15:35
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    @SSimon Yes but if you want to read about this then you can go to MSE. I think that's better than rehashing it here and having us repeat all the same discussion that already happened.
    – Bryan Krause Mod
    Nov 23, 2019 at 18:30
  • @BryanKrause I tried but it is so confusing, I dont know who is Monica and why moderators of academia kept secret and continued with election, also what it means for them to return anyway, so what is the point of the boycott? why would someone protest ower changing of licence, I don't understand and why they blocked a user for expresing revolt,nothing of this is explaind
    – SSimon
    Nov 24, 2019 at 8:36
  • @Heutl so it is drama, and not serious issue
    – SSimon
    Nov 24, 2019 at 8:36
  • @SSimon: Does it feel serious to you?
    – user115896
    Nov 24, 2019 at 12:22
  • no idea,that is why I asked question
    – SSimon
    Nov 24, 2019 at 12:23
  • @SSimon: Then it's probably not so serious to you. Maybe you change your opinion after reading on Meta? Maybe not? Both is okay.
    – user115896
    Nov 24, 2019 at 13:32
  • You also might want to talk to the temporarily banned user.
    – user115896
    Nov 24, 2019 at 13:33
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    @SSimon There weren't any secrets kept besides the ones correctly kept and mentioned here. The election here started long before this situation unfolded, and was triggered because the existing mods here asked for some more help. There is no conspiracy here at academia.SE.
    – Bryan Krause Mod
    Nov 24, 2019 at 16:39
  • @SSimon Who is Monica? This might get you started. Nov 26, 2019 at 19:42
  • Horrible. Is this because of new CEO @SecretAgentMan
    – SSimon
    Nov 27, 2019 at 5:05

2 Answers 2

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The recent troublesome events have been extensively discussed on the main Meta, and I don't think there's anything significant we can add here.

Everything I read it seems like moderators knew from the start of this year that something is going wrong, however they proceed with election for new moderators.

There was nothing wrong at the start of this year and the troublesome events took place when elections had already started. As a candidate, I was well aware of the ongoing discussion on the main Meta.

if you all knew that why moderators kept us in dark?

I don't think anyone was "kept in the dark". During the election things were evolving and probably no one had a clear understanding of the ongoing events. Note also that people here participate with different levels of involvement. For many, events that are not specifically connected to asking and answering questions on this site are totally irrelevant. In other words, those who are interested in the meta-life of Stack Exchange may be a negligible minority.

We as ordinary users how should react to these new changes on SE, are we somehow affected?

It's up to you: How do you consider your participation to Stack Exchange? How do you use it? How do you react to troublesome events in your life?

are our identities and location sold to third parties now?

There's no reason whatsoever to think this.

Also moderators that suspend their activities commented or implied that they will come back, so what is the issue than?

I don't understand this point. Suspending the moderation activity is a form of protest against certain actions from Stack Exchange, the company. Protestants may withdraw their action if the issues that led to the protest are resolved.

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There seems to be a lot in your question. I will try my best to answer what I see, if I miss something, let me know ...

What are implication for Academia SE users of recent licence changes and moderators disatisfaction and revolt?

The license was changed from CC 3.0 to CC 4.0. There are some immediate effects of that as the terms of the licenses are different. There is also the issue that SE has now set a precedent of retroactively re-licensing our content. This has raised the question of what prevents them in the future of attempting to re-licensing our content under a more restrictive license. The effect on Academia.SE users of the moderator dissatisfaction and revolt is pretty limited. We are still handling flags and user issues in a timely manner.

Another one wrote A request for SE employees and CMs User Apparente was suspended That user was very nice and insightful, wonder what happened.

I requested something in that question for CMs. I doubt anything will come out of it. The linked user was not suspended on Academia.SE so there really is nothing anyone, but that user, can say.

Everything I read it seems like moderators knew from the start of this year that something is going wrong, however they proceed with election for new moderators.

There are lots of things wrong, but I am confident that if we could go back to the beginning of the year, or even prior to the election scheduling, that few moderators would have predicted things going as poorly as they have. No one was trying to mislead anyone.

When I asked one user why she didn't apply for a position, she told me that big troubles are coming, now I understand on what she implied, however, if you all knew that why moderators kept us in dark?

I have no idea what this user told you, but apart from things we are not allowed to tell you, we don't keep you in the dark. In general, the things we are not allowed to tell you are "relatively small" (like what an individual said or PII) or scheduled for a widespread announcement.

We as ordinary users how should react to these new changes on SE, are we somehow affected?

I think each user needs to decide how they feel about the changed in the ToS regarding the right to sue, the ads and the fingerprinting associated with them, the re-licensing, and the public slandering of an SE user/moderator.

are our identities and location sold to third parties now?

I am not aware of any public change to the policies regarding the use of our identities and location, but this is not something I have been following.

Also moderators that suspend their activities commented or implied that they will come back, so what is the issue than?

I don't understand this question at all.

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