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    Thanks for the insight. In the last sentence, "far worse positioned" -- you meant "worse" compared to what?
    – ChrisW
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 1:00
  • 86
    You may've missed it, but I did some research at the request of a CM back in December to see how many avid answerers were reading meta questions on a regular basis. The numbers were, uh, large. Much, much too large to fit into a NYC apartment. Given answer % has already been falling for years, I'd guess that further annoying the most avid answerers is probably a bad call... I'm inordinately happy to see that someone has finally realized this.
    – Shog9
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 1:03
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    @ChrisW The most obvious reading might be worse compared to when the company employed people like Jon, Shog9, and Robert, or more generally, had a larger CM team.
    – Bryan Krause
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 1:04
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    @ChrisW: In addition to the smaller CM team that Bryan mentioned, there have been a number of loses in other teams (particular PMs) that make it difficult to execute on plans. The PM for Q&A is still being advertised, which is a pretty critical position.
    – Jon Ericson
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 1:22
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    @Shog9: It seems likely I was thinking of that research, but I don't have a good grasp of details like who wrote it. ;-)
    – Jon Ericson
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 1:36
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    A little bird told me that there has been additional research since I left, and since there was close to a week where you were employed here and I wasn't, it's entirely possible that you know something I don't. But regardless, better research - and especially better interpretation of the results - is all for the best, regardless of who is doing it. Ain't like I can publish stuff I dropped into a private Slack channel anyway ;-)
    – Shog9
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 1:42
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    @VictorStafusa: I don't know that anyone ever sat down and said "let's make meta users into customers" or anything like that. It's more that people focused on revenue growth tend to have less idea what benefit meta has. Honestly people who don't use the network aren't going to understand meta right away. Even regular users who aren't focused in meta issues would be forgiven for not really knowing what it's all about.
    – Jon Ericson
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 6:17
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    @JonEricson It is ok for regular users who only use the site occasionally and aren't very used to SO/SE not understanding what metas are or how they work. However, people who work at SE trying to maximize the revenue not knowing properly how does the very thing that they are working on functions is just a very sad shame, to say at least.
    – Victor Stafusa
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 7:29
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    So basically: a company that depends on free labour from expert users chose to treat those users like a commodity valued by sales potential only, and its most active users like a liability, and it took 5 years for them to consider that this might not be a great plan and might have side effects.
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 7:48
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    @user56reinstatemonica8: That's not entirely accurate. Parts of the company certainly used the funnel model and to the degree it's used tactically to smooth out rough edges on the site, it's actually a helpful way of looking at things. More recently the funnel model became the primary way of looking at the community and that's when some of the most destructive decisions were made.
    – Jon Ericson
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 9:17
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    Very insightful. I've been wondering where power users fit into the organizational tree. In some ways, we're the zebra meat in the lion trap
    – Scott Seidman
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 11:35
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    @ScottSeidman It's somewhat indirect. You mostly need to keep the zebras happy, at least so that they do not go on strike. The message here is rather that surprisingly the zebras listened to each other at the water pit that was placed next to the lion trap.
    – NoDataDumpNoContribution
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 13:46
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    Can I just say, publicly: it feels so good to see you and @Shog9 conversing here. It's a true blow to the company that your collective expertise and talents are no longer front-and-center, but I'm heartened to see the community not losing your perspectives. Thank you both, again!
    – nitsua60
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 16:19
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    @VictorStafusa Indeed, I've been places where someone would have gotten fired for something like what's been going on the past couple months. I'm still trying to figure out how they didn't connect Meta users to active main site users. I mean, most people have no reason to be on a Meta unless they are already active on a main site!
    – anonymous
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 19:35
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    @nitsua60: One of the great things about being a CM for a community you grew up in is that it's a pleasure to work every day. (And often late at night too!) I couldn't believe my good luck to also get paid. The message to SO leadership who might be listening: the events of the last few months broke my trust in the company, but greatly increased my trust in fellow members of the community. Now that you've stopped digging, I hope you can also learn to trust the people who care about sharing knowledge enough they will dedicate themselves to it even when facing headwinds from the company.
    – Jon Ericson
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 21:08