I must say that I am extremely disappointed in αλεχολυτ's behaviour. I am probably speaking out of school, and I expect that there may be consequences for me, but I do think that it is important for the non-moderator community to have some understanding of the events which prompted this thread (as I understand them):
- αλεχολυτ was elected to a moderator position.
- It appears that, prior to signing the moderator agreement, αλεχολυτ was given access to moderator-only tools and spaces (e.g. moderator-only chat). There was concern among the moderators in these moderator-only spaces that this gave access to certain sensitive information to a person who had not indicated a willingness to protect that information. (This, by the way, is its own problem, and I would really appreciate it if SE could clarify the onboarding process for new moderators, as it seems like something broke, here).
- Over the next couple of days, multiple moderators in those moderator-only spaces asked for clarification from αλεχολυτ about whether or not they had signed the agreement yet and, if not, were they going to sign the agreement. Answers to these questions were cagey, at best, and largely came down to "Why don't you trust me?" We were never given a yes or no answer to this very simple question.
- Following these events, αλεχολυτ lost access to moderator tools and spaces. This access was initially restricted by elected moderator moderators (i.e. elected moderators who the moderators have elected to moderate those moderator-only spaces—try saying that five times fast). There was concern that αλεχολυτ had access to tools which they shouldn't have access to prior to signing the moderator agreement. I will note that, in my perception, all αλεχολυτ had to do in order to prevent all of this from happening was to say "Yes, I have signed the agreement."
- SE staff then followed up by further restricting αλεχολυτ's access to these tools and spaces.
At this point no one here (i.e. average users on Meta) can help αλεχολυτ to regain access to these tools and spaces. You need to reach out to SE staff. There is a link at the bottom of every page on the network with the text "Contact". Use that.
That being said, this behaviour does not fill me with confidence, and I question whether or not αλεχολυτ is qualified to act as a moderator on this network. In general, the moderation team runs on a certain amount of trust. We trust each other to manage the various SE communities, to give advice, and (sometimes) to vent to each other. The actions of αλεχολυτ have used up a lot of their social capital, and I must admit that I will have difficulty trusting them in the future. I am not impressed by their actions in moderator-only spaces and I am not impressed by this post on Meta. This is not an auspicious start for αλεχολυτ.
