Thank you for continuing to keep all of us updated on what's happening (since SE obviously isn't). I have a lot of respect for you and think you're a wonderful person whose helped a lot of people and who is doing her best to make SE a better place.
It's for that reason I wanted to leave you a quick message because I'm a little worried about you. I hope it turns out that I'm 100% wrong and that a few months from now you can look back at this and call me silly for writing what I'm about to write.
However, in light of SE's recent actions, they have shown (as I'm sure you have realized) that there are quite a few senior staff members who don't truly care about the community and therefore don't care whether or not they hurt them. SE is #1 and that's all that matters. Unfortunately, that also means normal users can and will be sacrificed if they believe it will help the company achieve its goals (although publicly who knows what they are these days?).
So it is for that reason that I just wanted to leave you a quick note of caution to be very careful about what you do about moving forward with any "official" reinstatement processes or similar things. Why? Because SE has a lot of smart people working there, some who don't care much about you, and they also have the money to afford really, really good lawyers (who definitely don't care about you). So I totally hope I'm wrong here, but if they decide getting rid of you is the best thing for them to do, then you need to realize there is a possibility they could very well try setting a trap for you and you being the kind person you are (thinking others will do good by you because you do good by them) means that you may unintentionally and somewhat naively walk straight into their trap(s) with no way out. While it appears they might be extending you a welcoming hand by allowing you to go through the reinstatement process, it may also be a trojan horse in disguise, put into action by very smart lawyers who lack any empathy or compassion for you. People like Shog, Tim, etc. are awesome and say nice things, but at the end of the day you need to remember that unfortunately they're not the ones in power. The people in power can do the complete opposite of whatever someone like Shog says and then have the power to tell Shog to quit talking about it as well. The people in power aren't your friend and they sure ain't anywhere near as friendly or caring as the CM's.
Therefore, if you haven't already, I'd highly advise you to please get legal advice about all of this. You don't have to say whether you have already or not, that's fine. But if you haven't, I hope you do. Before you sign any agreement, go through any reinstatement process, agree to anything, etc., I hope you're running it all by a lawyer, just to make sure that it's all being done in a way that can't potentially screw you over afterwards.
For example, you mentioned above that if they refuse to reinstate you, that it just strengthens your case. Perhaps you might be right. Although, I'd like to offer an alternative view to this. You see, right now you have all the leverage, because they fired you without cause and in violation of their own policies. You have all the public support (well, a lot of it) because of this. Except if you now go through their reinstatement process and they rig it (on purpose) against you, then you might just find any leverage you have disappears and goes straight to them. Why? Because now you went through their official process and were found to be lacking the qualities required in a moderator. SE is now justified in having removed you previously and they can now tell that to the world. They don't have to say you're a bad person. They only need to say that after a proper, official review process (which was always rigged against you but good luck proving that in court) that you didn't meet their required standards and so won't be reinstated. Others can then infer from that what they will. Which means in the court of public opinion, for those who don't know any better, they may automatically assume that means you must have been guilty all along and so the tide might/could/will? turn against you. And what are you going to do about that? Do you have the time, the resources, the social connections, etc. to set the record straight for all of them? How are you going to explain in future job interviews that you *might* have been unfairly fired as a mod but then when going through the official appeal process you were found to be unsuitable for a moderator position, meaning that perhaps they might have been justified in firing you in the first place? Because at the end of the day, SE is allowed to set their own rules. If they choose to set a bunch of rules rigged against you and then find you don't meet their new criteria for reinstatement, they're perfectly entitled to do that. Except that might potentially create some rather big or bigger issues for you, considering how those outside of SE might interpret that.
Again, I hope nothing along these lines happens. I hope I'm being overly paranoid. I hope the reinstatement process is fair and that SE actually wants to do good by you and that the senior people in power actually want to make things right again. It's just that based on their recent actions, I'm no longer so sure about that and if you're not careful, you're potentially going to end up getting burnt. Lawyers are trained to take advantage of nice, kind people like yourself. They're trained to lull you into a trap thinking everything is okay, only to pull the rug out from beneath once it's too late for you to do anything about it. And you don't deserve anything like this to happen to you. You're too nice and you have done too much good for SE to have things end like this. So sorry for my novel, yet what I really want to say is please if you haven't already, I'd highly recommend you get legal advice and have them review any written agreement, email, official process, etc. before you go through with them. This way if there is any trap(s) being set for you then hopefully your lawyer will detect them before you walk into them and/or have backup plans in place ready-to-go if you unfortunately step into one anyhow.
So good luck Monica. I wish you all the best with finding a peaceful win/win/win resolution for you, SE and everyone else. That would be my ideal for everyone involved and you sure deserve that! Unfortunately, not everyone thinks the same, so please just make sure you cover all your bases and protect yourself because SE has proven that they're sure as hell not going to.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Please be careful Monica
Date: 2019-10-17 06:24 pm (UTC)Thank you for continuing to keep all of us updated on what's happening (since SE obviously isn't). I have a lot of respect for you and think you're a wonderful person whose helped a lot of people and who is doing her best to make SE a better place.
It's for that reason I wanted to leave you a quick message because I'm a little worried about you. I hope it turns out that I'm 100% wrong and that a few months from now you can look back at this and call me silly for writing what I'm about to write.
However, in light of SE's recent actions, they have shown (as I'm sure you have realized) that there are quite a few senior staff members who don't truly care about the community and therefore don't care whether or not they hurt them. SE is #1 and that's all that matters. Unfortunately, that also means normal users can and will be sacrificed if they believe it will help the company achieve its goals (although publicly who knows what they are these days?).
So it is for that reason that I just wanted to leave you a quick note of caution to be very careful about what you do about moving forward with any "official" reinstatement processes or similar things. Why? Because SE has a lot of smart people working there, some who don't care much about you, and they also have the money to afford really, really good lawyers (who definitely don't care about you). So I totally hope I'm wrong here, but if they decide getting rid of you is the best thing for them to do, then you need to realize there is a possibility they could very well try setting a trap for you and you being the kind person you are (thinking others will do good by you because you do good by them) means that you may unintentionally and somewhat naively walk straight into their trap(s) with no way out. While it appears they might be extending you a welcoming hand by allowing you to go through the reinstatement process, it may also be a trojan horse in disguise, put into action by very smart lawyers who lack any empathy or compassion for you. People like Shog, Tim, etc. are awesome and say nice things, but at the end of the day you need to remember that unfortunately they're not the ones in power. The people in power can do the complete opposite of whatever someone like Shog says and then have the power to tell Shog to quit talking about it as well. The people in power aren't your friend and they sure ain't anywhere near as friendly or caring as the CM's.
Therefore, if you haven't already, I'd highly advise you to please get legal advice about all of this. You don't have to say whether you have already or not, that's fine. But if you haven't, I hope you do. Before you sign any agreement, go through any reinstatement process, agree to anything, etc., I hope you're running it all by a lawyer, just to make sure that it's all being done in a way that can't potentially screw you over afterwards.
For example, you mentioned above that if they refuse to reinstate you, that it just strengthens your case. Perhaps you might be right. Although, I'd like to offer an alternative view to this. You see, right now you have all the leverage, because they fired you without cause and in violation of their own policies. You have all the public support (well, a lot of it) because of this. Except if you now go through their reinstatement process and they rig it (on purpose) against you, then you might just find any leverage you have disappears and goes straight to them. Why? Because now you went through their official process and were found to be lacking the qualities required in a moderator. SE is now justified in having removed you previously and they can now tell that to the world. They don't have to say you're a bad person. They only need to say that after a proper, official review process (which was always rigged against you but good luck proving that in court) that you didn't meet their required standards and so won't be reinstated. Others can then infer from that what they will. Which means in the court of public opinion, for those who don't know any better, they may automatically assume that means you must have been guilty all along and so the tide might/could/will? turn against you. And what are you going to do about that? Do you have the time, the resources, the social connections, etc. to set the record straight for all of them? How are you going to explain in future job interviews that you *might* have been unfairly fired as a mod but then when going through the official appeal process you were found to be unsuitable for a moderator position, meaning that perhaps they might have been justified in firing you in the first place? Because at the end of the day, SE is allowed to set their own rules. If they choose to set a bunch of rules rigged against you and then find you don't meet their new criteria for reinstatement, they're perfectly entitled to do that. Except that might potentially create some rather big or bigger issues for you, considering how those outside of SE might interpret that.
Again, I hope nothing along these lines happens. I hope I'm being overly paranoid. I hope the reinstatement process is fair and that SE actually wants to do good by you and that the senior people in power actually want to make things right again. It's just that based on their recent actions, I'm no longer so sure about that and if you're not careful, you're potentially going to end up getting burnt. Lawyers are trained to take advantage of nice, kind people like yourself. They're trained to lull you into a trap thinking everything is okay, only to pull the rug out from beneath once it's too late for you to do anything about it. And you don't deserve anything like this to happen to you. You're too nice and you have done too much good for SE to have things end like this. So sorry for my novel, yet what I really want to say is please if you haven't already, I'd highly recommend you get legal advice and have them review any written agreement, email, official process, etc. before you go through with them. This way if there is any trap(s) being set for you then hopefully your lawyer will detect them before you walk into them and/or have backup plans in place ready-to-go if you unfortunately step into one anyhow.
So good luck Monica. I wish you all the best with finding a peaceful win/win/win resolution for you, SE and everyone else. That would be my ideal for everyone involved and you sure deserve that! Unfortunately, not everyone thinks the same, so please just make sure you cover all your bases and protect yourself because SE has proven that they're sure as hell not going to.