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Is there some way to communicate with the moderators of math.stackexchange.com when it's not about some particular posting, but rather about their policies and their behavior that persist over a decade or more that evince policies that are not stated in words?

You can't do this via flags. Flags are for matters involving particular postings and if you try to use the for the purpose describe above they'll spit in your face. They won't respond with something that says in words "Flags are not for that purpose." They'll just shove you aside and tell you you're garbage.

After several years of contacting them dozens of times about such a matter without getting any response at all, I told the moderators that I deduce from their years of silence that they deal ONLY with matters each of which involves ONE particular posting, but I thought they should have responded to my many many attempts to communicate with them by saying that they deal ONLY with matters each of which involves ONE particular posting, or at least responded in at least one of those many instances by saying something rather than by just ignoring me. This was in about 2015, after I had accumulated a reputation of over 100,000 and I have never seen the slightest sign that they received that missive from me, although I have reminded them of it several times. Then I wrote to the company via the contact form and asked what to do with concerns that exceed what the moderators can deal with, and they wrote back to say that I should submit such concerns to the company via the contact form. So I did so, in about 2015. I have yet to receive a reply. I reminded them of this by postal mail—the old-fashioned kind—in 2018, and I have received no acknowledgement that that they got this. That same document was sent to most of the officers of the company by email at the same time and not one has acknowledged receiving it.

So my question is: Is there some way to communicate with the moderators of math.stackexchange.com when it's not about some ONE particular posting?

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    $\begingroup$ Michael, we've told you many times we're available through flags or through the Math Mod's office chat, and that continues to be true. The problem is that you are so vague about your concerns that we are unable to help you. Despite our previous communications, I still don't have a good idea of the specific nature of your complaint. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander Gruber Mod
    Oct 1, 2020 at 7:32
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    $\begingroup$ I will add links to some previous related posts - although they are not exactly what you want, but those questions seems related to the issue at hand: What are appropriate ways to contact moderators in different occasions? Flag, Comment, Chat, Email? and Is it possible to contact (the whole) moderators team using e-mail. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Oct 1, 2020 at 7:36
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    $\begingroup$ Math Mods' Office is also listed in the List of chatrooms. From my own experience, I can confirm that mods have been sometimes willing to create a private room which can be only seen by the mods and the user invited into that room. (There are certainly some cases when you might want to say something to the mods but you do not want it to be publicly visible. Of course, this is rather time consuming for mods, so we can't expect this from them very often - but I and other users can confirm that such thing happens occasionally.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Oct 1, 2020 at 7:44
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    $\begingroup$ @AlexanderGruber You wrote: "we've told you many times we're available through flags or" etc. As explained in my posting above, it is absolutely false to say that you are available through flags. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Hardy
    Dec 28, 2020 at 19:53
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexanderGruber : The second paragraph of my posting above says "You can't do this via flags." If you think I am wrong about that, you could have said I am wrong about that instead of acting as if I had not raised that subject. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Hardy
    Jan 31, 2021 at 5:45
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    $\begingroup$ Not sure what to tell you, Dr. Hardy. We do see your flags but we haven't found them actionable. I'd love to finally settle your concerns if you can be more specific. Give us names, links to posts or comments. You're citing nonspecific people and nonspecific behavior-- how can I enforce against that? I'm not being facetious here. What exactly would you like us to do? No matter how you get in contact with us, it must contain this essential information. Otherwise I don't know how we can help you. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander Gruber Mod
    Feb 1, 2021 at 8:30
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    $\begingroup$ If these specifics have been communicated to us before, please repeat them. There is turnover on the mod team and the record keeping isn't that good. If you told Arthur or an earlier mod what was going on, we no longer have that information. The turnover at the company is even worse (particularly this past year) so they most likely do not have this information either, even if previously communicated in your letter. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander Gruber Mod
    Feb 1, 2021 at 8:40
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexanderGruber : I have given up on the things I have reported dozens of times to the moderators without ever once hearing anything from them, but there are also the issues of unethical conduct by the moderators. "Meta" is a cesspool of vulgarity, boorishness, and bullying, that last by high-reputation users, and it is now clear that neither the moderators nor the officers of the company want it to be different from that. I will write about the moderators' behavior with specificity YET AGAIN within a few days. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Hardy
    Feb 6, 2021 at 0:03
  • $\begingroup$ OK. Just make sure you are specific (link to specific comments, posts, etc.). We can't sanction anyone without evidence, and we're limited in our time resources, so you have to do some of the detective work for us. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander Gruber Mod
    Feb 7, 2021 at 1:03
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexanderGruber : In some cases the moderators have hidden the evidence (in one case they said explicitly that that was what they were doing). Will they assist with that? $\endgroup$
    – Michael Hardy
    Feb 7, 2021 at 22:50
  • $\begingroup$ @AlexanderGruber : Why did you not answer my question above? Clearly you have a moral obligation in this instance. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Hardy
    Feb 14, 2021 at 4:23
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    $\begingroup$ Sorry Michael, I just didn't see it. We (the diamond mods) can read deleted comments, if you're able to point us to the post the comments were deleted from. Deleted chat messages are harder to recover, particularly if they are not recent. In any case, if there is something we can't access that is when the CMs would have to step in. They will be slower and probably less patient, so if you can point us to evidence that doesn't require CM access first, that would be best. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander Gruber Mod
    Feb 14, 2021 at 5:48

1 Answer 1

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If it is a private matter, which is essentially equivalent to it being reporting what you perceive as problematic behaviour of someone, then flag.

If it is not a private matter, use the Math's mod office.

Just to reiterate what was said here: Do not use e-mail.

Regarding the specific flag you mention, it doesn't seem to be private. So use the Math's mod office. However, if you use the aforementioned chat room, it'd be helpful if you try to be specific and explicit in where lies the problem rather than focus on tangential inquiries. If you wish to continue the communication I can elaborate. (I can't otherwise since the contents of your flag are, a priori, private.)

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  • $\begingroup$ I'm a little curious. When the Mod Office was new, some of the diamond bearers expressed doubts and concerns about the wisdom of having such a chatroom. We have had some changes in the line up since, so may be now the mods are perfectly happy with it? Of course, for the chatroom to fill a purpose it is sufficient that some mods visit it semi-regularly. Anyway, I'm still not sure how "official" it is as a channel? De facto it is, I guess, so this is all academic :-/ $\endgroup$
    – Jyrki Lahtonen
    Oct 4, 2020 at 18:44
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    $\begingroup$ @JyrkiLahtonen Personally, I like the way it is now. It seems more focused than some time ago and has a clearer expected use. (For example, it was very common that people used it as an alternate way to flagging and we were not very clear about the distinction, but this has been gradually changing.) $\endgroup$
    – Aloizio Macedo Mod
    Oct 6, 2020 at 0:51
  • $\begingroup$ "If it is a private matter, which is essentially equivalent to it being reporting what you perceive as problematic behaviour of someone, then flag." This is advice given after the MANY MANY times when I flagged members of the clique for bullying on meta and the moderators ignored those flags persistently for years. They never said a single word about them. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Hardy
    Feb 5, 2021 at 16:30

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