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    And it doesn't matter. Too little, too late - we are far beyond new features. The number of users of the network is dropping like overhyped AI stock. SO has gone from 7.6k questions/day on average in 2016 to around 1k questions per day in 2024. -> Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 13:52
  • 4
    That curve doesn't look like something that can even be fixed. Neither by a downsized company not by a muted "community". And particularly not by meta.stackexchange.com trying to be that orchestra which keeps playing while Titanic is sinking. The harsh truth is that almost everyone else has already left the sinking ship. It has been like that for many years. It's just that we are up to our knees in water now, the instruments are starting to sound strange and most of the violinists have already left or drowned. "What should we play next? Feedback appreciated." Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 13:52
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    To be honest, this doesn't really seem like it's even an attempt to answer the question. It's just plain cynicism. Not like I don't get why you're saying it, but whether or not you feel it's a justified viewpoint, it's not responsive here. Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 15:08
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    I agree with you on many points, especially on the asymmetry of the relationship between community and company. Many community members left anyway already. But I also enjoyed answering here nonetheless because I don't expected anything as a result. The reason I posted is because I want to publish my thoughts somewhere, just anywhere. At least the people who read it will be influenced by it. I'm definitely not doing it for the company. As soon as the company presents their own ideas (if ever) I will see if I like them. That's all. And yes, probably something with AI. Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 15:25
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    @Slate Realism is often mistaken for cynicism... I tried to stick to facts rather than opinions and thoughts. I do believe that these are the most recent major features, all introduced on SO. I do believe that there was no prior community suggestion for either of them. This is verifiable by checking this meta and meta.so. Particularly verifiable by someone with internal access to the various teams and why they made a decision to implement feature x. Prove the post wrong by all means. Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 15:36
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    @Slate As for cynicism, it comes from somewhere. In my case from observing SO the company over 13 years, trying to interact with it & from being reasonably active on the various metas. At the 10th or so time we were outright lied to, some people turned a bit cynical. Take for example the agreement after the moderation strike about not introducing haywire AI experiments on the network without prior community discussion. If you want the community to explicitly link and call out all company lies, maybe we can create a separate thread about that... Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 15:38
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    Bottom line: the company keeps asking for community input. Then runs off to do something else entirely. Over and over and over again. Just stop. Go and do your thing without pretending to take community input - it would be more honest. Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 15:55
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    Well, @Lundin, that's my job, and I'm not going to stop doing it. I'm not going to pretend there isn't a problem, and I won't give up on trying to fix it. I'll continue to do so in the way I expect to be most effective. So, where does that leave us? Again, I understand the history, and I get where your cynicism comes from. I'm just saying it's not an answer to this question. Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 16:13
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    @Slate I don't think this is the best answer on this thread, nor I agree with everything said above (especially in the context of this post), but at least part of this answer criticizes your question and challenges the way you've chosen to go about addressing the issues with the network (first paragraph). Whether those are valid points or not, is a different matter; but I wouldn't dismiss this as a non-answer (re your first comment). Cheers. Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 16:19
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    @Slate I think the issue is that there is some sort of disconnect here. The CMs, particularly you, actually seem to have a decent idea of what the community wants and seem to mostly agree with them/say they'll pass on the feedback. Somehow, though, this information doesn't get to whoever actually makes the decisions (the CEO?). Honestly, I would really like to see upper management be on MSE reading these posts and other user feedback consistently like you and the other CMS are. Part of the reason early SO succeeded was that the Jeff was in touch with the community. We need that again. Commented Jan 28, 2025 at 22:01
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    @Slate Maybe there simply isn't an answer to the question or at least not one you want to hear. Commented Jan 29, 2025 at 7:40
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    @Slate I would take this as a frame challenge. The question asks what the public needs, but skips over what the community needs. This is a "Put your mask on before helping the person next to you" moment. SE can't provide anything of lasting value to the public without its community of volunteers, not even data to train AI with. The community needs a common purpose. The question should be "What does the community want to accomplish?" See Also: How'd you get started? and Why do you stay? Commented Jan 29, 2025 at 16:37
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    @NoDataDumpNoContribution What the community wants is a different question from "What is the purpose that brings us together as a community?" When SO started, the leadership was very clear on what the site was supposed to be: joelonsoftware.com/2008/09/15/stack-overflow-launches. Currently the company leadership talks to investors, not the community, about their vision for the future. The community has no leadership pointing it toward a purpose. We often get treated as an obstacle to the company's purpose, which is apparently making money using mostly unpaid volunteer labor. Commented Jan 29, 2025 at 21:17
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    @Lundin You misunderstand what I mean by investors. meta.stackexchange.com/q/403885/273494 The CEO isn't talking to the community. He's talking to shareholders, corporate partners, i.e. investors in the company. And there was a time when SO's mission was to serve developers more than it was to make money. I like making money as much as the next person, but I'm not going to work for a company with no higher purpose than making money and I certainly won't volunteer my time to them. It has nothing to do with them making a profit. It's about what I want to spend my time doing. Commented Jan 30, 2025 at 17:01
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    @Slate And then 1 month after this post, the company yet again proves everything I said here to be the truth, observable live, by rolling out this buggy fiasco of a pre-alpha editor on SO. Proving yet again that none of this is cynicism but hard facts. #1 writing this post giving feedback was a huge waste of time, as the post prophesied it would be. #2 absolutely nothing from this whole Q&A thread was listened to & acted upon, as usual. #3 nobody wanted the new editor or asked for it. #4 SO is the guinea pig alpha test server. All of it hard facts, this is how the company operates. Commented Mar 11, 2025 at 14:48