Again, ganging up on the moderation team that tries their best to facilitate the needs/desires of the Era climate of any given instance is the wrong take-away.
Stop blaming moderation. The stringent moderation is indicative of the hostile environment of this site. If the mod team didn't clamp down on rationally skeptical posts in the past weeks, they get blasted for "siding with rape apologists" and creating an "unsafe environment for survivors." There was literally no course of action, where they win, with how ridiculously fractured Era is over these cases. Just take a second to think before unironically jumping into another premature blame game.
This site's discourse around allegations needs to change on a fundamental level, if we want to make Era a better place for all participants. I feel like pointing fingers at the moderation team is by far the worst course of action.
Moderation and the site's discourse are deeply intertwined. The post Kirblar was banned for is, in light of everything that has transpired on the subject, the most milquetoast reaction imaginable. Yet one of the stated ban reasons is "Deflecting from sexual harassment allegations". The take that says "I'll wait for a real reporter who actually talks about the story" is lukewarm in comparison to every post in this thread, and the ban reason is disingenuous in light of what the WaPo, PBS, NYT and CNN have done.
The moderators are as much to blame for the discourse here as us actual users, if only because they use threat of banning in order to ensure users toe the line. I am not for one second saying they have an easy job, but they have certainly created an atmosphere where it feels like discourse is led by the mob.
All that said (and at the risk of backseat modding) I would advise that a new thread is created in order to determine what Era can learn from this. The topic is serious enough that forum drama and repercussions are disrespectful, imo.