Skip to main content
24 events
when toggle format what by license comment
May 23, 2017 at 12:36 history edited CommunityBot
replaced http://stackoverflow.com/ with https://stackoverflow.com/
Jun 21, 2015 at 21:47 comment added T.J. Crowder @James: "Would stubborn as a mule cover it?" No. Stubborn, in and of itself, one could understand and respect. But Jeff's actions -- including in and related to this question, most of it now carefully edited out -- went far, far beyond any acceptable level of behavior. But best to leave it. Not least because this was near the end, and near the end I think he was seriously, seriously stressed.
Jun 21, 2015 at 18:44 comment added James @T.J.Crowder Would stubborn as a mule cover it? No, I haven't, but most people who make big things (like Stack) tend to have strong ideals, that's why they made big things. Not saying it's right, just pointing it out.
Jun 21, 2015 at 18:43 comment added T.J. Crowder @James: Ever interacted with Jeff? ;-)
Jun 21, 2015 at 17:59 comment added James @T.J.Crowder Yes, one can "only measure what you can measure", but that doesn't make it accurate. And one can make a decision without considering the data because it's limited and so not particularly useful. Jeff obviously believes he did what was best for the site, and that will (likely) include the presumed consensus from those who did not come here and vote. That's only speculation of course, and it does touch towards dictatorship. But perhaps if 1 million users had come here and voted in favour of your proposal, Jeff would have at least reconsidered it
Jun 21, 2015 at 17:43 comment added T.J. Crowder @James: The key part of that quote was "expressing an opinion". You can only measure what you can measure. (And it is, of course, now closer to 20 times as many than to ten...)
Jun 21, 2015 at 17:37 comment added James "ten times as many people expressing an opinion want the change reverted as want to keep it. That's a landslide in any voting system." Your question has 262 in agreement, and 15 in disagreement. Given there are "millions" of users on Stack, that's no representative of "community". Even with 5K views, it's also, quite specifically, a representative of "Meta community" voting, and the majority of the whole "Stack community" have not even read this.
Nov 2, 2012 at 14:48 comment added TRiG @PeteL.Clark. Jeff Atwood also made some interesting moderation decisions on EL&U. He eventually realised his mistakes and issued a notpology.
Jul 22, 2011 at 7:33 history edited T.J. Crowder CC BY-SA 3.0
Now officially > 10:1
Jul 16, 2011 at 20:02 comment added Pete L. Clark @JockM: Sure, when a great moderator is driven to resign on principle it seems clear that something is amiss (which is why I brought it up in the first place). I just didn't want to paint too dire a picture.
Jul 16, 2011 at 19:53 comment added JockM @Pete I take your point (and actually knew that), but I would argue that it is still a net loss. Just, perhaps, not as grave as it could have been. As a guy who started and ran a community based website for years I know that any community site is only as good as the leaders in it. They are the moderating force, they set the tone; in short: they lead.
Jul 16, 2011 at 19:43 comment added Pete L. Clark @JockM: yes, Akhil Mathew is, in just about every sense I can think of, an exceptionally good person. But he hasn't left the community -- he just stopped being a moderator. So, although I brought it up as an example of negative consequences of outside intervention, I have to say that in absolute terms it wasn't really a tragedy.
Jul 15, 2011 at 16:50 comment added JockM @Pete and after reading his resignation the loss seems sad. Without getting into the cause, he seems like a valuable member of the community to lose
Jul 15, 2011 at 7:17 comment added Pete L. Clark @TJ: I was not talking about Robin Chapman. (Actually Robin Chapman is apparently still a moderator...) I was talking about the resignation of Akhil Mathew.
Jul 14, 2011 at 8:15 history edited T.J. Crowder CC BY-SA 3.0
percentages thing is stupid and changes too often; done editing unless the numbers change **substantially** either way
Jul 13, 2011 at 21:19 comment added T.J. Crowder @Grace: And I'm not claiming that. I'm saying that the change is pointless, arbitrary, and unnecessary. Forcing a pointless, arbitrary, and unnecessary change down the throats of the community the face of overwhelming feedback to the contrary is demonstrating a complete and total lack of respect for that community and an unwillingness to examine or question oneself. The numbers just prove how unpopular it is. It was wrong before the first person voted; ignoring the feedback is a second, distinct, error. And a worse one, frankly.
Jul 13, 2011 at 18:26 comment added Grace Note StaffMod Don't let numerics fool you. Numerics don't make right. Hundreds of users were opposed to the changes made to the envelope we used to have. See where we are now. Policies here have never been decided solely by votes. If they were, the top entries in the reqs tab on the front page wouldn't still be there, they'd be implemented straight-away. Singular users have been enough to oppose the Team's solid stances and still get what they want implemented. Claiming that all these voting supports should be what defines how the site is created is a non-starter.
Jul 13, 2011 at 18:18 history edited T.J. Crowder CC BY-SA 3.0
people just keep voting...
Jul 10, 2011 at 8:14 comment added T.J. Crowder @Pete: Let's not bring the Robin Chapman thing into this discussion (or did you mean someone else?). It's an unrelated point and one where (agreeing with your post on the matter) neither party appears to have behaved well. It's true that SE changes regularly and I'd agree those changes are not well-communicated. In general, I'd say it changes for the better, and it makes a change from systems that just never improve, year-on-year.
Jul 10, 2011 at 7:56 history edited T.J. Crowder CC BY-SA 3.0
update the figures, fix my own grammar (tsk)
Jul 10, 2011 at 4:07 comment added Pete L. Clark @TJ: +1. I strongly agree with most of what you say. However I disagree that (let me shift away from the personal) the SE platform gives an unusual amount of control to the user. It seemed that way at first, but in the long run I have never been involved with a website that took such an active interest in directing and micromanaging my actions. Protocols on the SE sites change frquently, without warning, and most often without local explanation: you have to go somewhere else (e.g. here) to understand why the site doesn't work the same way today as it did yesterday.
Jul 10, 2011 at 4:02 comment added Pete L. Clark @Mark: Jeff Atwood has at some points taken a very active role in moderating math.SE, often to the consternation of many of the elected moderators and the vocal users of the site. His single-handed interventions resulted in the resignation of one of the elected moderators. I was often surprised, among other things, that the head of a largish enterprise would insist on acting on such a small scale: e.g. policing individual comments. When pressed, he has made it clear that he will do what he wants even if most or all of "the community" is against him.
Jul 9, 2011 at 19:53 comment added Mark Ransom It's possible that "run Stack Overflow" means moderating, not designing. Jeff isn't interested in the vote because he's not looking at the immediate impact, he's looking years down the road. I still don't agree with him, but I hope I understand his perspective.
Jul 9, 2011 at 15:54 history answered T.J. Crowder CC BY-SA 3.0