With the moderators' resignation in November, we (Josh Gould and Khionu Sybiern) had the mantle of the Moderation Team offered to us, and we caught up to speed on what led up to this conflict. Their resignation became a catalyst, and we commited with the rest of the project leadership to do our best to solve the issues present and going forward.
After these months, the following update was shared with core and team leaders:
The moderation issue has been brought to a resolution. This case was open for an unsually long time, which made this process a considerably worse experience than necessary for all involved. This was caused in part due to the lack of well defined procedures and the underspecified governance structure of the project. Another major factor was the complexity of the situation: it was not a simple case of a CoC violation, but rather a long-standing collaboration and communication issue involving interpersonal conflict and burnout. While we consider this case resolved, we very much recognize the harm that has been done by how the situation was handled, and will continue to work on improving the way we avoid and handle these kind of issues in the future.
It should be noted that all involved parties are considered in good standing with the project.
Bringing a close to this situation is a huge relief, but it is also far from the last step on the journey to recovering as a community. While project leadership continues to work on these issues, the Moderation Team is working on an RFC to create supporting mechanisms to cover a wider range of issues. We're working with professionals in mediation and other relevant fields to make sure we are prepared. The RFC additionally will better define areas of moderation that were overlooked and improve collaboration and safety.
The number one thing we would like going forward is a stronger two-way relationship between our team and the community. Going forward, we will be asking for your help to make contributing to and using Rust as healthy of an experience as possible.