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There's a big debate / kerfuffle going on over at

Stack Overflow is doing me ongoing harm; it's time to fix it!

and it's a real shame that it's gone on for over a month without a satisfactory conclusion, for everyone involved or observing.

I'll leave it up to the individual reader to decide their point of view, but if you've noticed anyone changing their profile picture, name, or profile content, this is the summary of what's been going on.

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    I just read her post that you link to. I'm almost scared of StackOverflow now. What a new low we have come to. Commented Oct 30, 2019 at 18:13
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    Supporting Monica can get you suspended or banned. It happened to Robert Harvey and it happened to me for calling that out. If someone (esp. with >2K rep on Meta) wants to, they can edit that fact into this post.
    – WBT
    Commented Nov 1, 2019 at 16:00
  • @WBT did they specifically say this was the reason?
    – Mark Mayo Mod
    Commented Nov 5, 2019 at 20:32
  • @MarkMayoSupportsMonica Yes. It is officially VERY WRONG to call attention to the fact that people can face SE penalties (as Monica did) for asking questions about this policy. Their explanation included verbatim text: "The FAQ relates to future action. You can not look at historical action and claim that it is not correct. We can not [sic] change the past."
    – WBT
    Commented Nov 6, 2019 at 14:29
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    I've pretty much stopped coming here, except once in a while by accident because the muscle memory for the URL is hard to eradicate. Commented Nov 7, 2019 at 14:35

4 Answers 4

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I am (possibly "was" by the time you read this) a moderator on Server Fault, another site in this network. When I first learned what happened I immediately suspended all my activity on that site, in support of Monica and in opposition to how SO (the company) has mistreated her.

In the meantime I remained active here on Travel, my otherwise second most active site on the network.

I cannot currently trust that SO (again, the company) will do the right thing. I am no longer comfortable moderating here, and I am also growing more and more uncomfortable with merely participating, the longer this drags on.

If this is not resolved soon, it is very likely that I will simply quit participating in all network sites entirely. It will be a very sad day; I love to travel myself and I thoroughly enjoy helping people travel. But doing so under these circumstances is becoming more and more difficult.

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I have never trusted Stack Exchange to be a long-lasting source of information due to their for-profit objectives and sometimes very hostile moderation policy. I encourage everyone to regularly export their data in case one day the ship sinks for good: Is it safe to use Cross Validated as a note keeping software?

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StackExchange posted an apology today, which was approved by Monica as part of her legal settlement: Update: an agreement with Monica Cellio. As such I consider the issue resolved and will no longer reference that story in my username. It would've been nicer if SE also reinstated Monica as a mod, but to me an apology is good enough.

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  • Yeah, I agree - I've removed it from my Meta.SE name too.
    – gparyani
    Commented Dec 28, 2019 at 23:14
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I have my ups and downs with SE sites, probably more downs and ups, and I've deleted my account on many of the SE sites, where I have never should established because of my poor nerves and intolerance for newspeak and mind-washing memes. The reason I would never be a good moderator.

But SE is an awesome place for people asking for help and willing for help. Not all sites maybe, my personal experience with academy and workspace is terrible, my feelings against religious sites are at best mixed, and I'm terribly disappointed how politics turned what it was feared to be (and that, although my studies started from political sciences, I'm unable anymore to provide any highly meritorious input, which is disappointment from my side).

But some sites are definitely awesome. The StackOverflow from which it started, the outdoor and fitness family, the languages, and the travel! This site is really wonderful resource, and I'm not aware of any other site that provides such a great help for travelers. It is a great value added for the whole internet community, and some personal conflicts between moderators are not going to change my mind about it. I will continue using this site and I hope nobody will change their minds because of what one side of the conflict has to say. Because we don't know what was really on and probably we will never know.

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    The actions which led to Monica being removed as a moderator were visible to other network moderators, which is why this has blown up far beyond one might expect, and why so many moderators are upset about it. We do know what actually happened; we saw the whole thing. Commented Dec 2, 2019 at 4:04

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