Staff: A couple of you have come in here, belatedly, lamenting the otherization of the staff by the community, and talking about how you're normal people with everyday lives (that, needless to say, come before volunteering on Era), but here's the thing:
The community doesn't want and has never wanted to "otherize" you. The habit — or, according to SweetNicole, the policy (?!) — of not engaging actively with the community otherizes yourselves. As the LGBT+ community well knows, visibility is crucial to the public acknowledging you as human. (And by engagement, I don't mean trotting out a singular relevant minority to act as the "face" of the staff, in a performance of ostensible diversity. That's not what being transparent looks like, and it's not what serving in a community should either.)
Be visible. (And by visibility, I don't mean towing the administrative line in intimidating or authoritative fashion.) Yes, that's scary, particularly when the community sentiment is boiling over — perhaps it wasn't even allowed, since Nepenthe had to make her case to appear at all — but proactive engagement can only democratize the forum and stymie said boiling in the first place. Yes, engagement comes with accountability for your visible words, but such is the burden of assumed responsibility, voluntary or no.
[Example: If Royalan had stayed in here, apologized, explained that he'd learned after his past comments, his name and calls for his banning might not be at the fore of this emotional boil over. It would still be prudent for him to resign as a moderator, not because past mistakes are unforgivable, but because his past acephobic comments made him a uniquely unqualified person to have the role he did in Ketkat's banning and the previous thread's locking.]
Since Era's founding, much of the community's adversarial relationship with the staff has — and I know you don't want to hear this — come from top-down policy decisions, as well as the virtual invisibility of the administrators, sans SweetNicole, who is now absent and whose role (even then, not enough) continues to be vacant. Era's community has its fair share of toxicity, but the staff's passivity and its policies' inadequacies have allowed it to grow.
One of Era's founding tenets was transparency, but literally the only meaningful and consistent example of it has been the public banners explaining warnings/bans... which, as seen in Ketkat's case, can be manipulatively abused (or at least appear to be, from the perspective of the public). That lack of transparency needs to change, as it has ever been at the fore of the community's disgruntlement with the staff.
Official reviews of situations, longform responses, and eventual policy changes take time. Everyone accepts that. But what's unacceptable — and what indicates severe mismanagement — is how many hours this thread went without any staff communicating, and that's being charitable and including Nepenthe's personal apology.
Regarding Ketkat: As Nicole said, enough is enough. The situation has reached a point where it no longer matters what she did or did not do, because as has been demonstrated constantly, she was a pillar of the community and multiple crucial sub-communities. I understand that her alleged actions make staff uncomfortable, but (1) she needs to be able to relay her side of the story, (2) the community comes first. Full stop.
Ketkat's banning may have been voted by staff majority — which I somehow doubt, due to its haste, and due to dissenters being less comfortable speaking up — but the bottom line is this: the community's voice has unanimously voted the opposite, and ResetEra is fundamentally the community, lest anyone forget how we clung together in our flight from GAF. Staff have come in here speaking of their humanity, of forgiveness, of sympathy, yet none of that is extended to Ketkat, whose offending post itself was made in unequivocal good faith for the betterment of the community? Unacceptable and hypocritical.
If there are individuals amongst the staff who aren't comfortable serving with Ketkat unbanned, then I remind them that their position is voluntary, and while I hope they stay in the community, their official capacity can be replaced from within the community. If pride gives anyone pause in doing so, perhaps replacement is all the better. Once again, communication is vital to health and longevity.
The LGBTIA+ community, the mental health community, the Era community: the confidence, comfortability, and support of all these people should come before staff wishes in this case of conflict. Period. Or else you aren't serving the community at all.
Seriously great post.