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The exodus started due to an ill-timed firing that happened after questions were raised in moderator chat. An edict was given and that was that. No follow up. This policy codifies those “give the edict and leave” actions into binding upon moderators.

My questions are simple:

What is considered an official policy being communicated?

Is it something said in the Teacher’s Lounge? Pinned there? Posted on teams? Posted on this meta? Posted on the blog? Emailed?

Same questions with “accepting guidance given by [employees]”.

If I see an answer and another mod isn’t checking the TL and they don’t see it, can they be fired?

If they say “I’m not going to enforce it until we get some clarifications” can they be fired?

The moderator agreement says “I will accept” — are we talking military or monastic obedience?

The exodus started due to an ill-timed firing that happened after questions were raised in moderator chat. An edict was given and that was that. No follow up. This policy codifies those "give the edict and leave" actions into binding upon moderators.

My questions are simple:

• What is considered an official policy being communicated?

• Is it something said in the Teacher's Lounge? Pinned there? Posted on teams? Posted on this meta? Posted on the blog? Emailed?

• Same questions with "accepting guidance given by [employees]".

• If I see an answer and another mod isn’t checking the TL and they don’t see it, can they be fired?

• If they say "I'm not going to enforce it until we get some clarifications" can they be fired?

• The moderator agreement says "I will accept" — are we talking military or monastic obedience?

v. I will abide by all other officially announced moderator and user policies made available to me.
vi. I will accept additional guidance given by members of the Stack Exchange, Inc. Community Team and Senior Leadership Team, whether in response to questions, concerns or discussions regarding existing network-wide policies.

The Terms of the Agreement

v. I will abide by all other officially announced public moderator and user policies made available to me. vi. I will accept additional public guidance given by members of the Stack Exchange, Inc. Community Team and Senior Leadership Team, whether in response to questions, concerns or discussions regarding existing network-wide policies.

(new clause) viii. Nothing in this agreement shall be construed as to deny the moderator the right to ask for public community guidance on proposed or existing policies.

v. I will abide by all other officially announced moderator and user policies made available to me.

vi. I will accept additional guidance given by members of the Stack Exchange, Inc. Community Team and Senior Leadership Team, whether in response to questions, concerns or discussions regarding existing network-wide policies.

The Terms of the Agreement

v. I will abide by all other officially announced public moderator and user policies made available to me.

vi. I will accept additional public guidance given by members of the Stack Exchange, Inc. Community Team and Senior Leadership Team, whether in response to questions, concerns or discussions regarding existing network-wide policies.

(new clause) viii. Nothing in this agreement shall be construed as to deny the moderator the right to ask for public community guidance on proposed or existing policies.

What I'd propose to change

Again, I'm just one person, and I'm not even a moderator; but if I were thinking about coming back, this is what I'd expect to see and what I'd consider to be fair (I'm only going to focus on the parts I'd change; assume for our conversation that I'm OK with the rest of it):

The Terms of the Agreement

v. I will abide by all other officially announced public moderator and user policies made available to me. vi. I will accept additional public guidance given by members of the Stack Exchange, Inc. Community Team and Senior Leadership Team, whether in response to questions, concerns or discussions regarding existing network-wide policies.

(new clause) viii. Nothing in this agreement shall be construed as to deny the moderator the right to ask for public community guidance on proposed or existing policies.

Stack Exchange, Inc. agrees that it will:

vi. Announce changes to the moderator agreement and all other policies covered by this agreement on https://meta.stackexchange.com no less than sixty days before the deadline to accept the new agreement with a period of at least thirty days for public discussion and review.

Scope of changes

The changes I'd make are to ensure a public forum for discussing policy changes is mandated before expecting moderators to abide by those policies. I'd also ensure that moderators are free to raise proposed policy issues with their communities in order to ensure they've been able to consider community feedback.