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I suppose you all have read this unpopular answer. People have responded critically and sarcastically towards SE's declaration that they "will not be answering any questions or comments about that going forward". Assume SE will hold firmly onto their declaration, all current situations (License change, fired mods, CoC mess) will remain permanently under the status quo, and the community's voice will be constantly ignored, possibly with radical ones removed. It's like we're no longer able to change, or even affect whatever SE's heads have decided or are going to decide.

A harsh comparison for SE is against Hong Kong, where so far only 1 out of 5 demands has been fulfilled and the remaining ones seemingly unreachable. While HK citizens can subvert the government, we most likely won't since SE is a commercial company after all. I've seen attempts to replicate the functionality on a new website (I assert I saw that in a user profile but can't find it now), but I'm not positive towards its future of building another community. What are our next steps at the current situation?

If I must say - I would unwillingly say that we proceed as usual - but I guess many won't accept this "solution".

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    First, I find your correlation between SE and HK both politically-charged and irrelevant (as in comparing apples to oranges). Second, I believe we have entered a deadlock situation -- each party is waiting for the other to improve in order to improve itself -- and deadlocks are not easy to recover from.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 10:11
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    @FrédéricHamidi while the link with HK may not be shared by everyone, I find it nice how so many different people can have different associations with the same thing. Therefore I find it nice to hear about many of them. I have upvoted this question because I find the question in the title nice and important. I agree the comparison with HK might distract too much in that respect. It seems a good question but not well positioned. So the HK comparison might be nice, but maybe not in this place, the question is bigger than this particular individual idea/association.
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 11:21
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    @Sextus, the question in the title is indeed nice, and bigger than this particular individual idea/association, thus my comment about the "community" being deadlocked. Maybe I should make time to post a question about this.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 11:27
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    @SextusEmpiricus Voting on Meta is a little different. Downvotes can mean disagreement. Apart from that, I guess a lot of downvotes are because of mentioning of HK.
    – user204841
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 12:02
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    @Frédéric re: "Please consider what you have done by locking this question with only the current answer"... I'd really recommend to not address close voters like that or reopening posts that are primarily opinion-based just because someone else managed to write down their opinion before it was closed. That's not the fault of the close-voters.
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 12:21
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    @Tink, I will not vote to reopen this post (as I explained above), so we agree here. Consider, however, that other answers could very well complement and / or challenge the only answer out here, but they cannot be posted now, which was my point. Also, that only answer standing at +10/-5 as we speak (I did not vote on it either) would warrant consolidation / opposition I believe. Then again, that's only my opinion, and as I said I won't vote to reopen until someone (not me) removes the HK references, because it's hopeless otherwise.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 12:27
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    opinion-based is a very bad close reason on meta, which an extremely lot about opinion.
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 13:06
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    @Modus, I know that voting on meta has some meaning like agreement/disagreement. But still, one could explain the (dis)agreement besides just the simple vote. In addition, this whole 'voting on meta to show disagreement' makes more sense in terms of voting for different suggestions/answers or voting for a question that's a proposal. But, that is not the case here. The question suggest a discussion and some people decide to unilaterally vote that this discussion should not be held (that's how I interpret downvotes in this case), without giving some clear example what is wrong with the proposal.
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 13:13
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    The close reason refers to the help center. But the help center is not very helpfull. The page that describes what is offtopic is just an exact copy from Stack Overflow (see stackoverflow.com/help/dont-ask and meta.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask) I believe that can't be right. Meta should have different topics as off-topic than non-meta.
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 13:22
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    No one's dead because of SE's actions yet, so maybe don't compare the HK situation to our squabbling.
    – user473022
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 14:35
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    @iBugsaysReinstateMonica I don't think comparing a human death to deleting an account on a website is a remotely reasonable comparison. That being said, have any ex mod's accounts actually been deleted against their will because of the recent changes? I'm not aware of that having happened.
    – Rubiksmoose
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 18:14

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If you mean by "The Community" everyone who uses SE sites, I guess most will continue to use the sites just as oblivious to the recent events as they have always been.

If you mean the large number of users who contribute to the SE sites by asking and answering high quality questions, but (judging by their lack of interaction with meta posts about the current events) choose not to get involved in meta drama, I guess they will continue asking and and answering questions without getting involved in meta drama.

If you mean the very small group of users (so small that I recognize their names when they post) who seem to complain about SE at every opportunity, I guess they will continue complaining, because why should they stop now?

I can't help thinking you mean a group like the last of those. And I don't think it's healthy to call that tiny group of users "The Community", or to imply that tiny group is representative of the silent majority of active SE contributors. In the last few months that tiny group has turned MSE into a toxic echo chamber. That group, by its antics on MSE, has probably dispelled any remaining belief among SE staff that interacting with MSE can be useful. So, yes, the continued complaints by that group will indeed be ignored. But I guess they can continue making angry posts here. It might make them feel better. But it won't change anything.

So, please, whenever someone such as yourself presumes to speak for or to suggest direction of "The Community", recognize that doing so is problematic, and perhaps actually counterproductive. In SE jargon, meta questions about "The Community" run the risk of being Too Broad or Primarily Opinion Based.

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    In the last few months that tiny group has turned MSE into a toxic echo chamber. That group, by its antics on MSE, has probably dispelled any remaining belief among SE staff that interacting with MSE can be useful. Which tiny group? I get several matches when I read that paragraph.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 10:44
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    SE staff has all the powers over the discussion on MSE. They run the site, they set the rules, they decide who's allowed to speak here. I find it deeply disturbing that you set the whole blame for the current situation on a small group of powerless users.
    – default locale
    Commented Nov 26, 2019 at 7:44
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    I think this answer is uncharitable. Not everyone complaining now is a chronic complainer. Lots of people who were previously pretty satisfied with SE are unhappy now.
    – TRiG
    Commented Dec 9, 2019 at 12:24

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