Your paragraph on "be honest" represents quite a departure from the way this was handled in the past by moderators. In most cases, the answer to suspensions has always been "no comment", regardless of the amount of drama a suspension caused.

My impression was that most moderators interpreted something into the guidelines from SE on this subject. Making suspensions low-profile and avoiding shaming users in public is a good idea, but this got turned into an almost absolute ban on any comments about the details of a suspension at some point.

But there is a part in your post I consider rather problematic, at least if I'm interpreting this right. There were two cases where I previously would have considered it acceptable to post the full details of a suspension:

• the suspended user explicitly gives permission, e.g. to let the community challenge the suspension publicly
• the user lies about the fact of the suspension

In both these cases the suspended user is initiating the situation. But there are also cases where the community is complaining about a suspension, but the suspended user isn't participating in this at all. I wouldn't feel comfortable releasing any more details about the suspension in this case, but the way I read your post I would be justified in doing so.

Am I understanding this right, that we could release the full details of a suspension simply because the community (but not the suspended user) is creating a huge amount of drama over the suspension? If yes, is that really a good idea, or should we require either consent of the suspended user or at least some involvement in the public complaints about the suspension?

Your paragraph on "be honest" represents quite a departure from the way this was handled in the past by moderators. In most cases, the answer to suspensions has always been "no comment", regardless of the amount of drama a suspension caused.

My impression was that most moderators interpreted something into the guidelines from SE on this subject. Making suspensions low-profile and avoiding shaming users in public is a good idea, but this got turned into an almost absolute ban on any comments about the details of a suspension at some point.

But there is a part in your post I consider rather problematic, at least if I'm interpreting this right. There were two cases where I previously would have considered it acceptable to post the full details of a suspension:

• the suspended user explicitly gives permission, e.g. to let the community challenge the suspension publicly
• the user lies about the facts of the suspension

In both these cases the suspended user is initiating the situation. But there are also cases where the community is complaining about a suspension, but the suspended user isn't participating in this at all. I wouldn't feel comfortable releasing any more details about the suspension in this case, but the way I read your post I would be justified in doing so.

Am I understanding this right, that we could release the full details of a suspension simply because the community (but not the suspended user) is creating a huge amount of drama over the suspension? If yes, is that really a good idea, or should we require either consent of the suspended user or at least some involvement in the public complaints about the suspension?