On leaving Stack Exchange

I'm one of a rather large number of moderators who have left the site in recent months. After more than eleven years.

To brag a little on one hand and establish the moment of this decision on the other I'll recite a few facts. My Stack Overflow user number is 2501 and I have the beta badge to go with it. I was also active on UserVoice in the era before meta was a thing. I have around 200,000 "worthless internet points" on subject sites around the network and more than 30,000 on Meta Stack Exchange. My Physics StackExchange user number is 520 and I served as a moderator for more than nine years.

Think about that.

So why did I feel it necessary to step down?

First of all, if you haven't been following the drama you might want to think twice before you dig into it, because there is little positive to be found. Keeping ones blood pressure on an even keel is valuable, after all.

But the short version for me was after months of drama which the company seems unwilling to address I read between the lines of a tweet Shog9 sent out to understand how those in charge are running the company.

I concluded that I would not willing stay employed by the pack of clowns currently running Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange fine ladies and gentlemen in the C-suite for any longer than it would take me to find a new job. (One can't and shouldn't expect people with responsibilities to just say "Take this job and shove it!".)

But if that is the case why in the world would I work for them for free??

I can actually answer that question.

Presumably the reasons that other people are staying on are varied but include things like

• Doing it for the community which remains valuable in and of itself.
• Holding out hope that things aren't as bad as they might look.
• Just haven't noticed because much of the serious drama is internal to the company and hasn't been made explicit, and they either didn't notice the drama on the metas or aren't moved to care.
• Waiting for a viable alternative. 

Whatever the reasons I won't criticize. People have to meet the world on their own terms and those may not be the same as mine.

What do I expect walking away to achieve?

Short answer: nothing anytime soon.

The current executives will remain in charge. They will achieve their stated goals of increasing the user base, and for a while at least it will result in increased ad revenue. The investors will be happy. It will be some time before the damage to the utility and value of the sites is evident to unbiased observers and people with an vested interest in not noticing will be able to deny it even longer than that.

But I won't personally contribute to extra value to people who seen bent on destroying something I worked so hard to build. And that means something to me.

In time, however, the results will be clear. Before we get to that point, the internet needs a viable alternative (or more than one). There are several project out there and I'm looking at them as I find time. More on that later,  I suspect.