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This all sounds super great and you sound like a great person.

The problem is that we've gotten apologies and chipper avowed plans to make things better already and they haven't gone anywhere, leading to a lot of cynicism about additional ones.

I used to be a mod. I am active on Workplace now, and they're doing a mod election, and I refuse to participate because of the repeated contempt SE has shown for the mods (and CMs, and community). I don't participate here on Meta.SE any more, I just saw this pretty much by accident as I clicked through on a night of utter boredom. I'm one of those that has been alienated by SE's actions - to be fair I felt fairly disenfranchised just over years of being a mod and not feeling very supported by SE, but this all made it 100x worse.

Incremental improvement is fine, but I think the only thing that would make me think SE was at all serious and make me consider any kind of non-arm's-length interaction with SE again is an immediate public apology and offer of unconditional reinstatement to Monica. That would be the single thing you could do, which requires practically zero effort really, that would be a real and concrete act that would let me (and, I suspect, many in the community) feel comfortable with engaging with any of this (whether she accepts or not). I am pretty sure whatever legal agreement exists between you absolutely doesn't prevent going further than what it requires.

Otherwise, to be honest, it seems like a thief sitting on top of his previously stolen loot earnestly saying "well I will never steal again!" It omits the obvious responsibility of making the current things right.

This all sounds super great and you sound like a great person.

The problem is that we've gotten apologies and chipper avowed plans to make things better already and they haven't gone anywhere, leading to a lot of cynicism about additional ones.

My Background

I used to be a mod. I am active on Workplace now, and they're doing a mod election, and I refuse to participate because of the repeated contempt SE has shown for the mods (and CMs, and community). I don't participate here on Meta.SE any more, I just saw this pretty much by accident as I clicked through on a night of utter boredom. I'm one of those that has been alienated by SE's actions - to be fair I felt fairly disenfranchised just over years of being a mod and not feeling very supported by SE, but this all made it 100x worse.

What You Can Do

Incremental improvement is fine, but I think the only thing that would make me think SE was at all serious and make me consider any kind of non-arm's-length interaction with SE again is an immediate public apology and offer of unconditional reinstatement to Monica. That would be the single thing you could do, which requires practically zero effort really, that would be a real and concrete act that would let me (and, I suspect, many in the community) feel comfortable with engaging with any of this (whether she accepts or not). I am pretty sure whatever legal agreement exists between you absolutely doesn't prevent going further than what it requires.

Otherwise, to be honest, it seems like a thief sitting on top of his previously stolen loot earnestly saying "well I will never steal again!" It omits the obvious responsibility of making the current things right.

It's About The People

Something to maybe be aware of. A community is made up out of people. Not "processes", not "documentation," not "active next steps," but people. What has happened is there's been a concerted attack from SE central on people that this community cares about. In general there's been negative sentiment shown against the moderators and CMs and Meta users and site users, and in particular there have been active negative actions taken against Monica and Shog9 and Robert and others. "We (probably) won't do that again" is not exactly healing. "We have processes now" isn't healing. We don't care about your process, we care about our people. You have plenty of control over how Monica, and Shog9, and Robert, and all the others are treated right now, they all still exist. You can make all kinds of promises and put together various processes but if you can't do the right thing by our people, no one will care.

This all sounds super great and you sound like a great person.

The problem is that we've gotten apologies and chipper avowed plans to make things better already and they haven't gone anywhere, leading to a lot of cynicism about additional ones.

I used to be a mod. I am active on Workplace now, and they're doing a mod election, and I refuse to participate because of the repeated contempt SE has shown for the mods (and CMs, and community). I don't participate here on Meta.SE any more, I just saw this pretty much by accident as I clicked through on a night of utter boredom. I'm one of those that has been alienated by SE's actions - to be fair I felt fairly disenfranchised just over years of being a mod and not feeling very supported by SE, but this all made it 100x worse.

Incremental improvement is fine, but I think the only thing that would make me think SE was at all serious and make me consider any kind of non-arm's-length interaction with SE again is an immediate public apology and offer of unconditional reinstatement to Monica. That would be the single thing you could do, which requires practically zero effort really, that would be a real and concrete act that would let me (and, I suspect, many in the community) feel comfortable with engaging with any of this (whether she accepts or not).

Otherwise, to be honest, it seems like a thief sitting on top of his previously stolen loot earnestly saying "well I will never steal again!" It omits the obvious responsibility of making the current things right.

This all sounds super great and you sound like a great person.

The problem is that we've gotten apologies and chipper avowed plans to make things better already and they haven't gone anywhere, leading to a lot of cynicism about additional ones.

I used to be a mod. I am active on Workplace now, and they're doing a mod election, and I refuse to participate because of the repeated contempt SE has shown for the mods (and CMs, and community). I don't participate here on Meta.SE any more, I just saw this pretty much by accident as I clicked through on a night of utter boredom. I'm one of those that has been alienated by SE's actions - to be fair I felt fairly disenfranchised just over years of being a mod and not feeling very supported by SE, but this all made it 100x worse.

Incremental improvement is fine, but I think the only thing that would make me think SE was at all serious and make me consider any kind of non-arm's-length interaction with SE again is an immediate public apology and offer of unconditional reinstatement to Monica. That would be the single thing you could do, which requires practically zero effort really, that would be a real and concrete act that would let me (and, I suspect, many in the community) feel comfortable with engaging with any of this (whether she accepts or not). I am pretty sure whatever legal agreement exists between you absolutely doesn't prevent going further than what it requires.

Otherwise, to be honest, it seems like a thief sitting on top of his previously stolen loot earnestly saying "well I will never steal again!" It omits the obvious responsibility of making the current things right.

This all sounds super great and you sound like a great person.

The problem is that we've gotten apologies and chipper avowed plans to make things better already and they haven't gone anywhere, leading to a lot of cynicism about additional ones.

I used to be a mod. I am active on Workplace now, and they're doing a mod election, and I refuse to participate because of the repeated contempt SE has shown for the mods (and CMs, and community).

Incremental improvement is fine, but I think the only thing that would make me think SE was at all serious and make me consider any kind of non-arm's-length interaction with SE again is an immediate public apology and offer of unconditional reinstatement to Monica. That would be the single thing you could do, which requires practically zero effort really, that would be a real and concrete act that would let me (and, I suspect, many in the community) feel comfortable with engaging with any of this. Otherwise, to be honest, it seems like a thief sitting on top of his previously stolen loot earnestly saying "well I will never steal again!" It omits the obvious responsibility of making the current things right.

This all sounds super great and you sound like a great person.

The problem is that we've gotten apologies and chipper avowed plans to make things better already and they haven't gone anywhere, leading to a lot of cynicism about additional ones.

I used to be a mod. I am active on Workplace now, and they're doing a mod election, and I refuse to participate because of the repeated contempt SE has shown for the mods (and CMs, and community). I don't participate here on Meta.SE any more, I just saw this pretty much by accident as I clicked through on a night of utter boredom. I'm one of those that has been alienated by SE's actions - to be fair I felt fairly disenfranchised just over years of being a mod and not feeling very supported by SE, but this all made it 100x worse.

Incremental improvement is fine, but I think the only thing that would make me think SE was at all serious and make me consider any kind of non-arm's-length interaction with SE again is an immediate public apology and offer of unconditional reinstatement to Monica. That would be the single thing you could do, which requires practically zero effort really, that would be a real and concrete act that would let me (and, I suspect, many in the community) feel comfortable with engaging with any of this (whether she accepts or not). 

Otherwise, to be honest, it seems like a thief sitting on top of his previously stolen loot earnestly saying "well I will never steal again!" It omits the obvious responsibility of making the current things right.