Well this has whole debacle been saddening and enlightening.

As a silly example:

If that or this was a twitter rant instead of a meta post we never would have had another hat that depicts meat. No "Taco Tuesday Any Day," no "Extra Toppings" etc. Contrast that with what actually happened there.

Can we just take a step back here and think about what happened to spark the HNQ change.
A non SE user complains on twitter and nearly instantly the "offending" site is blacklisted.
Just read that last sentence there again. Persons, issues, money and politics aside that is crazy.

I am very disappointed in how SE handled this situation. Putting aside the end result, (the end does not justify the means) what SE did was shameful. In about 40 minutes SE had decided to unilaterally dis an entire site in the network, to placate an offended person on twitter. SE did not stand up for itself, for its (perfectly acceptable and on topic) content, for its mods, or its users. We got nothing but a knee jerk reaction along the lines of "Eek a semi famous self proclaimed feminist activist said something bad about SE. We don't want to look bad. Quick throw IPS under the bus, and pull everything." To quote a line from a post Monica Cellio wrote about this:

I feel like placating one person on Twitter is more important to you [SE] than doing right by your moderators and communities.

I would have much more faith in SE, and feel better about this if you (SE) had either responded from the company, and had a meta and or blog post for what you are going to do about the "HNQ issue". Or skipped responding on twitter (remember phases like "adding fuel to the fire" and "don't feed the trolls") and just went straight to a community post. (This question would of been a much better way of starting.)

No instead we get a really bad taste in our mouth, and a feeling that SE cares more about its inclusive and diverse image then about its users and content.

Now Tim I know you will read this, I' not upset at you, in fact I'm glad that there is a messenger between the inner workings of SE and us. I know you had to handle a pretty ugly situation. I trust that everybody responding had the best of intentions. However actions speak louder then any words. By SE's swift and decisive response, unfortunately SE's priorities have become clearer.

As an aside I waited over a week, and have read through everything that transpired so I could detail my thoughts with a clear and cool head. There were some tweets, that were very upsetting.

How do we move forward as a community? I do not know. The damage has been done. Regaining trust is a tricky process.

Well this has whole debacle been saddening and enlightening.

As a silly example:

If that or this was a twitter rant instead of a meta post we never would have had another hat that depicts meat. No "Taco Tuesday Any Day," no "Extra Toppings" etc. Contrast that with what actually happened there.

Can we just take a step back here and think about what happened to spark the HNQ change.
A non SE user complains on twitter and nearly instantly the "offending" site is blacklisted.
Just read that last sentence there again. Persons, issues, money and politics aside that is crazy.

I am very disappointed in how SE handled this situation. Putting aside the end result, (the end does not justify the means) what SE did was shameful. In about 40 minutes SE had decided to unilaterally dis an entire site in the network, to placate an offended person on twitter. SE did not stand up for itself, for its (perfectly acceptable and on topic) content, for its mods, or its users. We got nothing but a knee jerk reaction along the lines of "Eek a semi famous self proclaimed feminist activist said something bad about SE. We don't want to look bad. Quick throw IPS under the bus, and pull everything." To quote a line from a post Monica Cellio wrote about this:

I feel like placating one person on Twitter is more important to you [SE] than doing right by your moderators and communities.

I would have much more faith in SE, and feel better about this if you (SE) had either responded from the company, and had a meta and or blog post for what you are going to do about the "HNQ issue". Or skipped responding on twitter (remember phases like "adding fuel to the fire" and "don't feed the trolls") and just went straight to a community post. (This question would of been a much better way of starting.)

No instead we get a really bad taste in our mouth, and a feeling that SE cares more about its inclusive and diverse image then about its users and content.

Now Tim I know you will read this, I'm not upset at you, in fact I'm glad that there is a messenger between the inner workings of SE and us. I know you had to handle a pretty ugly situation. I trust that everybody responding had the best of intentions. However actions speak louder then any words. By SE's swift and decisive response, unfortunately SE's priorities have become clearer.

As an aside I waited over a week, and have read through everything that transpired so I could detail my thoughts with a clear and cool head. There were some tweets, that were very upsetting.

How do we move forward as a community? I do not know. The damage has been done. Regaining trust is a tricky process.