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    Why only StackOverflow? Activity (new questions, ...) is declining much faster on SO than on the rest of the network. The rest of the network becomes actually more important relatively every day. Mathematics gets quite a high number of new questions. Why not keeping non programming communities in your model? Commented Jan 24, 2025 at 15:37
  • @NoDataDumpNoContribution good point, I might give it more thought and edit when I reach a proper conclusion. Do note, it's not the way I want SE to be, but rather the way I think it would be. (Perhaps better also make it more clear in the answer?) (and the question here after all is what public need from us, not want from us. ;)) Commented Jan 24, 2025 at 15:47
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    So, Codidact, but worse? Commented Jan 24, 2025 at 16:25
  • Also you say that the design/UI would lately stay the same. Does it mean you think that the presentation/interaction part is close to optimal now? Commented Jan 24, 2025 at 16:36
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    The only "community" this future would be (possibly) good for is Stack Overflow. My home site of Puzzling has a thriving community which, I guess, would be forced to leave? Commented Jan 24, 2025 at 19:44
  • @bobble Why do you think so? Is puzzling not attracting enough visits by people seeing the ads? Anyway, as a financing way of an open source alternative once it gained traction, advertisements are still a possibility. If the traffic remains, income from ads could in first approximation also remain. Or does this answer assume that traffic will inevitably decrease a lot? Commented Jan 24, 2025 at 22:30
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    @NoDataDumpNoContribution this answer doesn't seem to allow for any of the non-SO communities existing. It says the network shrinks down to SO, and then SO goes open-source. No mention of non-SO communities having a home afterwards. Commented Jan 24, 2025 at 22:33
  • @Andreas same business model as Codidact, yes i.e. owned by the community. Commented Jan 25, 2025 at 8:37
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    @NoDataDump optimal? No idea, that's just what I know, and basically it boils down to whether I see the model of votes/score staying, and yes I think it's going to stay "even" in such a future. I don't think the public wants the design or voting model to change, if we want to talk in this question's "language". :) Commented Jan 25, 2025 at 8:40
  • @bobble same as my first comment reply to NDDNC, the part about "Stack Overflow only" is something I still have to figure out, I wrote what I had on my mind and I might add more insights when I have them. (But yes you're correct, in the direction SE is going now, I see them going towards ditching all communities except SO.) Commented Jan 25, 2025 at 8:43
  • I gotta admit, this vision for the future is really unusual. Does this really meet what the public needs from us? Even taken on face value, I'm not sure becoming a nonprofit alone would do it. Surely there is more people would need and/or want from us than simply to be what we are, but incorporated differently, no? Unless the core idea is that it's perfect as it is, and it simply needs someone to watch after it. (But I can only guess - it's not said explicitly...) Commented Jan 27, 2025 at 21:58
  • @Slate good points, and yeah I believe I need to elaborate some more in the answer, as previous comments also asked, mainly about the whole network shrinking back to one site only. But putting it utterly simple, yes I think the very core of the model can't be improved: Q&A where people vote for quality and manage/curate the site by themselves. And while writing and re-reading your comment some new thought arrives: the people need a better management, management they can trust. (Still something is missing of course, will try to keep thinking about it and explain better.) Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 8:23
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    Do you seriously not believe the public has any use for the 180+ other network sites. Are you that misguided!? Indeed, the public seems to have more use for them (as evidence that they aren't declining/declining less than SO) Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 22:03
  • I've made up my mind and I predict that StackOverflow will be dying before other StackExchanges die. The reason is that programming is much more algorithmic, much more well described elsewhere than more "esoteric" things like role playing games, literature or bible studies. The future of the stackexchanges are the humanities, not the technological knowledge platforms. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that this answer underestimates the decline in StackOverflow as well as the future capability of AI bots to help answer programming questions. Or I could be wrong of course. :) Commented Feb 12, 2025 at 7:55