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It seems to be Stack Exchange's policy, that moderators are elected for life and can also be reinstated when they wish to continue their duties after stepping down. (example).

I have now heard of/seen two cases of moderators stepping down from one site in good terms and later getting suspended (on their or any other site).

There is a general rule that a user must not have been suspended for a year before nominating as a candidate in any moderator election (source).

How do these rules play together? If a moderator left their position under good terms and then later got suspended, can they request their privileges back?

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    Another implication: one of the two users you mention is suspended network-wide but unsuspended manually on the site they moderate (though they are currently serving a shorter suspension on that site; this is unrelated). If that user were to regain moderator privileges, they would become a Chat.SE moderator and would be able to bypass suspension there.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Mar 9, 2019 at 10:59
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    It's probably going to be on a case by case basis. Just because someone had a single bad day or a over enthusiastic difference in opinion dosen't make them unsuitable to be a mod elsewhere.
    – Journeyman Geek
    Mar 9, 2019 at 15:24
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    @JourneymanGeek: That is the same argument people make against the rule about a person not being eligible for a moderator election if they've been suspended in the past year. And it's no more legitimate now than in that case. Moderators should be held to a higher standard; with great power, comes great responsibility.
    – Nicol Bolas
    Mar 9, 2019 at 16:15
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    It is - and even those are reviewed by CMs. And honestly - any situation where a mod needs to suspend another mod is painful simply cause it tends to involve massive communications breakdowns. I'm not comfortable with the idea that what I need to do to deal with a problem on a site I moderate is going to affect someone doing their best on another site.
    – Journeyman Geek
    Mar 9, 2019 at 16:33
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    @Nicol also, with a little power comes great irresponsibility.
    – Robert Columbia
    Mar 9, 2019 at 18:38

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I'd note this is at a personal level and shouldn't be taken as an official response of any sort (I mean, I merely moderate here).

I kind of think the circumstances are significantly different depending on what the situation is.

Ideally our moderators are expected to set an example for other users. Now, with a network suspension or a suspension on that site itself - the factors Shog talks about here come into play.

We certainly are speculating, though hopefully not going into personal attacks. A network suspension shows poor judgement, if not bad faith, and their ability to deal with others in the context of that site could be questioned.

Now, on another site - I feel this ought to be different. We need to look at one core question: is this person a good moderator for the site?. If they're already demonstrating the core skills and engagement of a good moderator - and have a bad day, somewhere, it might not necessarily make them unsuited for the role. You might need folks mediating where the issue is, and stepping in - but it can get difficult to step back sometimes.

So - ideally, if a moderator is on hiatus, and has had such incidents in recent times - I feel it's something we need to talk about. It shouldn't be an automatic disqualifier unless the action was on the site in question or it was particularly bad.

If it's a site where the user isn't a moderator - I guess that's a matter for the site's moderation team and the CMs to consider. I don't think its my place to be the person who judges whether someone is suitable to be a mod, indirectly. I just deal with issues on my own sites.

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