Can we just get over the fact that simply reinstating her no questions asked is not going to happen?

@Cerberus - I don't know what you mean by "get over" it. I've never understood that statement. It's just a blunt way to tell someone to stop expressing their opinion while expressing your own. Can you just get over people not getting over it, or is 'getting over it' just something for other people to do?

SE will not reinstate Monica just like that. It's never going to happen. She was invited to go through the reinstatement process and she has her objections to that, so rejected it. That's the end of the story. No amount of people stating "Reinstate Monica" is going to change that. That's why I say "get over it". There's no point in expressing an opinion if the situation has come to a conclusion already. No amount of protest is going to change that. It's only going to bring more and more negative attention to Monica's name.

I don't think my answer is going to be the straw that broke the camel's back. And it's not a protest. It's constructive advice.

Sorry about your nauseum :)

@Cerbrus what is the basis for your opinion that SO won't do the decent thing by unilaterally reinstating Monica? Do you a low opinion of SO? I don't.

@DKBose: If they would do that, they'd have done it already, way before lawyers had to get involved. Lawyers are expensive, reinstating someone is basically free.

Sorry, but your idea is totally out of the possible. SE Inc put up their policy, and they stated that this is the way to get reinstated. If they were willing to admit their own mistakes, they could have reinstated Monica weeks ago, instead of developing that complicated process. They told us that they don't want her back by their actions. In other words: you are wasting your time making such suggestions. Unfortunately.

@GhostCatsaysReinstateMonica I agree that I'm wasting my time. I'm commenting on something that doesn't involve me on the internet. I also agree that it's probably not going to happen. But anything is possible. In most situations our future actions aren't determined by our past actions. That's really the point of my answer. Whatever we do or don't do today is a choice today. Otherwise our lives are already over and we're just watching the dominoes fall.

@Cerbrus: Can we get over the fact .... No. Never, or at least not until the injustice is corrected. There is nothing at all to keep them from reinstating her. If they want to post something that sounds like excuse-making in a forum that invites responses then this should always be one of the responses. The can always post their stuff on a blog. They've done it before.

Yea, read my other comments on here, @James. No point i repeating what I said.

@Cerbrus: Believe me, I have read and appreciate your comments. But things never stay the same at tech companies, people in the company move on to other opportunities, and so forth. Stating that something is never going to happen because it hasn't happened yet doesn't seem right, and so it's incumbent on us to push back when SO pushes this narrative.

"Stating that something is never going to happen because it hasn't happened yet" That's not what I said. As far as SE, SE's lawyers, probably Monica and certainly Monica's lawyers are concerned, this case is done. It's over. SE made their offer, Monica rejected it, case closed. No amount of protest is going to make Monica a moderator again, and people should really finally accept that. You don't have to agree, but an answer like this one is just noise.

@Cerbrus "SE made their offer, Monica rejected it" - I thought there was a settlement, with SE backtracking partially, and both sides publishing the same wording. How do you know she rejected something? // "No amount of protest is going to make Monica a moderator again" - Naturally we would like her reinstated without folderol, but that is looking unlikely now, with the resolution agreement. Now, the next step seems to be to request reinstatement, holding our noses, since the important thing is to get her back. We all miss her leadership.

@aparente001 Read the last paragraph of this question again. That ship has sailed. It's not gunna happen.

@Cerbrus - If there is no time limit in the protocol they came up with, then I see no reason why reinstatement should not be attempted. There was a shog9 post or comment at one point where he seemed genuinely indignant -- here's the gist: "We created a procedure for moderators to request reinstatement, now why in god's name doesn't she go through the procedure?" I think that our pride and our righteous indignation are not worth as much as her reinstatement. I just want her back.

@aparente001: As you can read, SE made her an offer, and she rejected it. There's nothing more to it. She rejected the procedure, so that diamond is not coming back, the end. They lived unhappily ever after, business is a b***, life sucks, and there's no amount of protest going to change that.

@Cerbrus - I haven't seen that explicitly stated anywhere. What we know so far is that SE has indicated that they have cooked up a protocol for requesting reinstatement, and she hasn't submitted that request. Are you reading between the lines? Or do you have something you can cite?

You're forgetting to mention she has not applied because she has concerns about the process... That's basically the same as rejecting the invitation to re-apply.