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It was a big relief to see positive results of negotiations between representatives of Stack Exchange, Inc. and the moderators team.

It may be too early to conclude that the moderation strike is now over, but actively curating users that support the strike are probably looking closely at Stack Overflow moderators now to decide what to do next.

It would help me to know how moderators feel about the agreement reached so far and what the best course of action is now to keep supporting them.

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    Since the negotiations are over, you can resume your activities and this will in no way "hurt" the negotiations. However, there are still some parts of the agreed resolution that will take time to implement and put in function and there is no guarantee it will be successful. If that happens, there will not only be another strike, but probably mass exodus of experts and mod resignations.
    – Dalija Prasnikar Mod
    Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 11:06
  • 10
    The mere fact that we had to strike leaves a bitter taste and many will be reluctant to go back like nothing has happened and go back to participation at full speed. This is something you need to decide for yourself. Personally, I am back to some moderation activities, but I still haven't removed strike notice from my profile and I am proceeding with caution.
    – Dalija Prasnikar Mod
    Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 11:09
  • 3
    At least something happened, the far worse outcome would have been that the strike would have proven to the company that it's all fluff they can do without.
    – Gimby
    Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 13:17
  • Although things seem to be headed in the right direction, it remains to be seen how things will turn out.
    – machine_1
    Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 18:09
  • IMHO allowing the genAI content to be moderated and banned seemed to be the crux of the issue, and that appears to be back to status quo after the negotiations; which is to say our mods can now ban genAI content again. That took a clearly herculean effort by many community members, so kudos to them. Just my 2 cents, but I feel like it was somewhat remedied in that arena (not that I am very pleased with the direction other things are going from the staff side).
    – Travis J
    Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 21:47
  • @TravisJ some heuristics are already approved, but many other heuristics are still going through the proposal/definition, testing and approval process in the heuristics group.
    – starball
    Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 21:52
  • @starball - With regards to heuristics approval, are you addressing the different tools available for analyzing content to see if it contains genAI?
    – Travis J
    Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 21:57
  • 2
    @TravisJ not detector tools- discussion of actual heuristics, such as pattern matching and user activity/behaviours.
    – starball
    Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 21:59

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Votes are being gathered from both the larger Stack Exchange community and Stack Exchange network mods (including Stack Overflow) on if the resolution reached is satisfactory enough to end the call for striking. Other groups involved in the strike are also discussing resuming operations, such as Charcoal.

Votes will be collected until at least Sunday or Monday, via the Discord server that has been serving as our coordination hub.

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    Invite link for good measure
    – Zoe - Save the data dump Mod
    Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 8:29
  • @Zoe Do you think it's a good idea to publicly share an invite link for a Discord server that's used for coordinating a strike? Feels like that's kinda asking unwanted people to enter.
    – Nzall
    Commented Aug 5, 2023 at 20:46
  • 4
    @Nzall Like who? We moderate the server (which gets rid of trolls, spam, all the usual stuff), and several staff members are already in the server (and are still welcome to stay there as long as they follow the rules like everyone else). It has already been shared several times anyway, including in the open letter (at the bottom of the page)
    – Zoe - Save the data dump Mod
    Commented Aug 5, 2023 at 21:45
  • @Nzall perhaps worth knowing (also for everyone else) that the main purpose of that Discord server is just "This server is created with an aim to discuss things more casually than official SE chat rooms" (from its official readme), and the strike coordination just happened to be there.
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Aug 6, 2023 at 3:47
  • @Zoe oh, I see. I thought it was a moderator-only server.
    – Nzall
    Commented Aug 6, 2023 at 7:48
  • 1
    @Nzall Nope, it's public. Anyone can join. Mods and staff get special roles, but that's checked with manual verification (and doesn't grant anything sensitive). It's primarily a server for SE meta, and it spawned after the meta room on chat.SO wasn't quite appropriate for some discussions back in 2019. It becoming the strike organisation hub was mostly just by circumstance (SE not wanting the discussions on-site, and it already being an established place off-site where there's lots of people)
    – Zoe - Save the data dump Mod
    Commented Aug 6, 2023 at 11:02

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