I have noticed a couple severe suspensions for benign behavior. I think there is little tolerance for dissent anymore.

@GhostCatsaysReinstateMonica They have provided in the past. However they didn't take into account several factors. Unless we form a question asking for specifics, i'm afraid we will not get actual numbers (meaning the effect could be downplayed) and secondly any further post asking for actual numbers will be closed as duplicate of this.

@Fermiparadox Makes sense. I updated the question accordingly.

My gut feeling tells me your gut feeling is right... there has been unusual amount of suspensions... not that I was counting before... so maybe such things happened before... I don't know...

Let's assume the numbers are: 128 / 64 / 48. Then you conclude it is not normal. Then what?

@rene Then we ask mods the reason why users are banned 48 times without a warning so that we can educate ourselves. Asking about moderation is common on MSE (and MSO in which you have 900 posts). Aren't moderation/rules questions common in MSO as well?

@rene Then we created more transparency and can then ask what does that mean, and is there something that should be changed. The alternative is that people walk around and have gut feelings. That better?

Suspensions always have been a private matter between the mod and the user. It is weird to now use "transparency" as an argument to drop the privacy issue. Formulate a reasonable question about your gut feeling instead of circling around the "problem" with obtaining useless statistics. Those numbers will tell you nothing. So no, that is not better.

@rene So "128 / 64 / 48" now turned into a privacy issue?

No, it didn't turned into a privacy issue, it always has been one. You are the one trying to force mods to make things public that are private.

@rene The mods are still free to answer with that level of detail they consider appropriate. An answer like "we observed a 30% increase" has zero implications regarding privacy. I made a suggestion about what kind of data I would consider meaningful.

Using SEDE you can find users who have many posts or highly upvoted posts and reputation equal to 1. (Of course, there might be some false positives. Reputation one does not automatically mean suspended.) Here is an example of such query: Users with high score who have reputation 1.

It's a great question, GhostCat. I have been wondering the same thing (but was afraid to ask). // I've proposed a bunch of edits to make the question more understandable and to make it clearer that what you are doing is requesting data. Please roll back anything and everything that you don't like about my proposed edit.

@Martin - Can you add the reputation in one of the columns? I suppose there's no way of including the date of suspension, or the expected date the suspension will end?

@rene - Knowledge is power. // Is there any data you would not object to being shared?

@aparente001 I have added LastAccessDate. And also reputation - although for all users in question it will show exactly 1 reputation point, so I don't really see the point. Feel free to stop by in SEDE chatroom, if we want to discuss further improvements of this SEDE query (or other queries.).

@aparente001 privacy is the opposite of sharing data. I object to any data. Let me repeat again: Suspensions are between the user and the mod. A suspended user doesn't need to fear that they become part of a "statistic". We don't need knowledge to be empowered. It is none of our business.

@rene - Numbers can be shared, without sharing identities. When one files a FOIA request for data, one gets aggregate numbers, not names of individuals. // It is our business to notice what is going on, because we care about the site, and the people who participate here.

@aparente001 I care about users that got suspended and your and others push for data makes me very uncomfortable. I leave it at that.

@rene - We can agree on that part -- that we care.

@rene The information about suspension was always out in the open. Nothing did prevent you from writing such a sede query once sede was put in place. That privacy you emphasize never existed in reality. Having said that, again, I am not asking for a list of user names. But anonymous statistics focusing on numbers, not individual users!

Also note: one really reasonable change could be that deletion of comments by moderation is something the user is notified about. The user might not notice that " flags are following you" as I was told once. So a negative sentiment builds up, and one day, surprise, one straw breaks the camel and suspension. That should not happen!