I want to provide clarification on a few points.
The Rust core team enthusiastically stands by the decision to bring Ashley into this new leadership role. Ashley has been an outstanding member of the Rust community and brings much needed leadership and community skills; we’re lucky to have her.
Some here and elsewhere have brought up history from the Node community, which was already well known to the core team. Ashley has already withstood enormous public scrutiny and (ongoing) harassment, and we are unwilling for Rust forums to become yet another venue for relitigating that history. I believe that this was also a factor in the moderation team’s decision to shut down hostile discussion here and elsewhere.
Please note that the moderation and core teams operate independently, to avoid conflicts of interest. If you have concerns, please direct them to rust-mods@rust-lang.org or directly to me at aturon@mozilla.com.