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    Moderators tend to take our obligations to protect moderator-only information seriously. We recognize that there are aspects of the policy shared with moderators that should not be shared with the public. I believe most of us think that the company should be the one to disclose their policy, since it is their policy. But revoking the policy and following the agreement to discuss policies before rolling them out would be the preference.
    – Thomas Owens
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 15:59
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    @ThomasOwens I agree, the company should disclose the policy. My answer here is an argument for why it is in their interests to do so ─ i.e. it will get disclosed sooner or later anyway, if they don't publish it then someone else will.
    – kaya3
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 16:14
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    It reads like you're suggesting that a moderator leak the full version of the private policy to the press. Meta is where public policies are posted, with links from the private version to the public version as well as with links from the Help Center to the public Meta posts.
    – Thomas Owens
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 16:23
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    @ThomasOwens I haven't told anyone to leak anything. I've stated that I believe the community has an interest in seeing the policy (an opinion you haven't disagreed with), that it could be leaked (a statement of fact which I presume you don't dispute), and that I believe it's inevitable it will be leaked if it's not posted officially (a judgement which perhaps you disagree with, but you haven't persuaded me that it's not inevitable).
    – kaya3
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 17:10
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    You mention about protecting moderator-only information, but information itself can't be harmed and doesn't need protecting; it is people's interests in that information which can be harmed and may need protecting. If we accept that the community has an interest in seeing this information, then whose interests are protected by it remaining private? The fact that the strike is occurring at all shows that many moderators are not specifically motivated to protect Stack Exchange, Inc.'s interests. If there is any information mixed in with the policy which it would harm someone else's interests ...
    – kaya3
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 17:13
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    ... if it were disclosed, then like you I trust that that information won't be leaked, because as you say, moderators take their obligation to protect private information (i.e. protect people's privacy) seriously.
    – kaya3
    Commented Jun 5, 2023 at 17:14
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    there is just one issue: the confusion works in their favor. The users only see the part of the picture while only the moderators see the full version. Considering that the moderators themselves had to ask the company to avoid misrepresenting the issue in articles published by other sites, it looks like this is intentional. That way, at least a small part of users will think that the mods are acting unreasonable because all they see is a policy that does not contain any of the bigger issues shared only in private.
    – SPArcheon
    Commented Jun 7, 2023 at 9:19