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There are lists of moderators that have resigned or suspended activity due to the series of events1 instigated by Stack Exchange starting September 5, 2019, but I've only seen speculation on the number of regular users that have suspended activity.

Does a (potentially incomplete) list of users that have announced they are suspending some or all activities2 exist?

1: Such as purporting to relicense content they don't own the copyrights to and de-modding Monica.
2: Just as the linked list ranges from people who announced suspending moderator activities all the way through leaving SE entirely, this list should include people who have announced suspending certain activities (such as upvoting or answering questions) up through leaving SE entirely.

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  • 14
    It would be impossible to compile such a list in any reliable or useful way. A few users who are active on Meta SE have made a point of stating their intentions. Aside from that there's no way to know who, or how many, have curtailed or suspended activity, or for what reason. It might be possible to create a query to identify posters who met some criteria for showing up or posting prior to some date, and their activity since. But there wouldn't be a way to do more than guess at their motives.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Nov 7, 2019 at 21:41
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    I've been programming for a while now and I enjoy pushing a system to its limits as much as the next guy, but... seriously? Do you have an idea of the number of answer space and network traffic we would need to keep track of every user who goes on strike?
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Nov 7, 2019 at 21:55
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    So um...what's your goal here? Non-diamond moderators come and go with the tide, and are as quickly replaced as they leave. Objectively speaking, I can't see anything here other than another stanza in the Book of Grievances or as yet another protest post.
    – Makoto
    Commented Nov 7, 2019 at 21:57
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    You're probably right, but that doesn't answer my question. What's the goal of compiling that information?
    – Makoto
    Commented Nov 7, 2019 at 22:03
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    @Makoto My goal was to provide a source of data for the other conversations on Meta.
    – Stop Harming the Community
    Commented Nov 7, 2019 at 22:13
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    ...that's it? You want to keep track of all of the power users who're not being power users? I suppose that's answered my question, but I still struggle with "to what end".
    – Makoto
    Commented Nov 7, 2019 at 22:14
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    I'm voting to close because this is a "polling" question.
    – ChrisW
    Commented Nov 7, 2019 at 22:18
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    Rockwalrus - 10,000,000 users X 0.001% = 100 answers, but I've seen less than a handful "announce" that "I'm quitting" - probably more people left without a word, and certainly many more left because of: "My question was downvoted and closed, I'm never coming back." (there's been about half a dozen this year). This was closed as a "polling question", there needs to be a 'definable best answer' or reasonable exception. A "Whatdaya think?" is a forum format. Too many are staying, and even the angry aren't going soon, to make a statistical difference; and the 'rage quitters' won't ansr.
    – Rob
    Commented Nov 7, 2019 at 23:21
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    Voting to re-open as it speaks towards community involvement on meta.stackexchange. Whether we like for it to be or not; it's relevant to the Stack Exchange network.
    – George Stocker
    Commented Nov 7, 2019 at 23:27
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    I'm quite sure I can't be the only one to have deleted my accounts from all the 'peripheral' sites, ie the ones not directly concerned with a technical issue. Just a graph of account deletions over the past few months would be highly educational
    – user625792
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 0:45
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    *raises hand* *looks around* *sees that nobody gives a darn when one of the top 0.5% contributors leaves* *lowers hand* : Yeah, nobody cares, really, as long as the ad revenues stay up.
    – Marco13
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 0:58
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    Agree with above comments,it's gonna be highly impossible task to do. first you have to get a list of all users, then get an algorithm to figure out what you mean by suspended activities. Note that there are few non-mod users who expressed their feelings towards the situation and what they'll do(I'm one of them), for others, you should follow some computations based on assumptions. did someone really suspended activities, is this only because of this reason?some are only active on meta while not-contributing into main sites etc.so, not gonna be easy, unless people will mark themselves here
    – Vishwa
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 3:26
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    @Rob Yes, there are indications... Some users have stated they suspended activities in their profiles, some high reputation users have deleted their accounts, some users decided to remove their paid Teams. We can discuss whether this impact is relevant or not, but saying nothing is happening is simply not true.
    – Resistance Is Futile
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 13:49
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    @Rob Participation on Meta is still participating, but there is a world of difference between participating on Meta and on main sites. Also, some moderators that have resigned and suspended their activities are still active on Meta(s), too.
    – Resistance Is Futile
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 14:02
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    @Rob The goalposts have not moved. The question has been edited to clarify where the goalposts always were because some people misinterpreted the question.
    – Stop Harming the Community
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 15:53

3 Answers 3

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Such a list would not be sustainable.

I understand some of us have proved that one can dedicate quite a lot of time to build and maintain a live archive of the current events. As someone who believed in the original quality repository of knowledge for the future hook, I can appreciate it.

But this does not scale to an archive of any user who decides to go on strike (or take a break for a few days).

If you're aiming for voluntary declaration, you will get lots of answers / edits from users leaving and being back a few days later.

And if you're aiming for detection, I would love to hear about your algorithm.

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  • Such an archive should be managed with a SEDE query that shows previously active users that have suddenly dropped activity. Determining the parameters for this query might get a bit tricky. I think rate of reputation changes over time could be a good starting point.
    – dfhwze
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 5:52
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    That misses out on "due to recent events"
    – Bart
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 8:14
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Here is a list of some of the users that are suspending some or all of their activities because of Stack Exchange's recent actions, with links to what they have pledged not to do:

  1. Adrian
  2. ag415
  3. Aksakal
  4. Angew
  5. chappo
  6. chrylis
  7. De Novo
  8. GGx
  9. Iain
  10. Inactive
  11. Jenny D (still active here on Meta, but not on any other site)
  12. jhpratt
  13. Lauren Ipsum
  14. Mari-Lou A
  15. mbomb007
  16. mdewey
  17. meriton
  18. OnStrike
  19. Richard
  20. rockwalrus
  21. SC
  22. Sextus Empiricus
  23. SomeoneWhoUsedToCare
  24. stakx
  25. Stephen M
  26. Sybille Peters
  27. t3chb0t
  28. Thomo
  29. treat your mods well
  30. user19004
  31. user9517
  32. xwindows

All pledges were verified to still be in effect when they were added. This list community wiki, so you can add yourself or anyone you have verified to the list.

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    Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – Journeyman Geek
    Commented Nov 10, 2019 at 12:41
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You ask for "gone and why" (in question and comments) but post an answer "reduced effort, without specifics", so you didn't answer your own question.

You make a comment: "The list of users is what the question asks for. The links are supplemental information that is interesting but not not essential. I don't know how to react to the suggestion that don't know how to answer my own question because I was polite to someone who turned out not to be understanding what was asked.".

There was and is not any such suggestion, what I wrote was clear.

You don't understand that you changed the question, hedged the answer, and made a comment which changed, rather than explained, what you were asking for: "@Rob: "Where's the SEDE link?" doesn't answer the question of why. – rockwalrus-stop harming Monica 8 hours ago".

One way to react is: don't backpeddle, suggest you are polite, and that others don't understand English. Your account really has little reputation on other sites, and all the reputation you gained here was derived from slamming. We can explain this to you but we can't understand it for you. We don't need you to explain how you were caught.

As to your original question, here's why it's so difficult, unless people come back to answer you.

SEDE: Active on Stack Overflow:

Active on Stack Overflow

Since January 2018 until last Sunday (for Stack Overflow only) is plotted above. There's a small upward trend but month to month variance is quite large, it's very difficult to say one particular person's contributions are not replaced by one to several others - and that's the bottom line.

True, the chart doesn't show "who" (but it could) and especially not why; with that many comings and goings the reasons for leaving (and coming back) are going to be quite varied.

Three? answers saying: "Vote if you are annoyed by X" could work, but isn't allowed.

Does a list of users that have announced they are suspending activity exist?

The huge list would need to be constantly updated, see the chart above.

Overall things do improve (for the most part) year to year, there will always be quite a few that preferred "the old days" replaced by many complaining that they don't understand the new ways, only to be told ...

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    Practically every name has a link explaining which activities they are suspending and why. Given that many moderators have suspended some activities but not others in the linked list, it seems reasonable to use the same criteria for the non-moderator list.
    – Stop Harming the Community
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 2:24
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    Rockwalrus, you've said twice that you haven't answered, and using links makes it link-only - NAA. The list of moderators is a smaller list, with an expert answering properly (hopefully) in each case, while the "quitters" have been changed to "strikers" - with a 30K variance.
    – Rob
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 2:56
  • The list of users is what the question asks for. The links are supplemental information that is interesting but not not essential. I don't know how to react to the suggestion that don't know how to answer my own question because I was polite to someone who turned out not to be understanding what was asked.
    – Stop Harming the Community
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 3:55
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    Since 2014 user activity, in terms of answers, has been declining. The number of contributors on SO that add more than 5 answers per week has went from above 10k to below 6k. This trend will likely continue and the community is slowly dying. Now the website remains active because a small group of people still answer the questions. But it is not useful that this group is decreasing in size, it is not healthy for the community (the Gini coefficient, which is already small, is decreasing).
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 12:02
  • I realize now that "suspended activity" was unclear for people who weren't familiar with the lists I was referring to. I chose that wording because it was the most neutral phrasing I commonly commonly found. It often was in the form "I am suspending type activities until condition." I apologize.
    – Stop Harming the Community
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 16:32
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    I'm under no impression that I'm some sort of Stack Exchange hotshot. I have an account mostly to upvote the answers that are actually right and questions that are useful to me. I know how little that is valued. My participation in Meta has been entirely aimed at trying to find a way for this community I am at the periphery of but value highly to find a healthy resolution to very serious issues.
    – Stop Harming the Community
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 17:01
  • I just started this year, and while I haven't STOPPED 100% my activities elsewhere, the charts here show how all my energy is now in Meta.SE, not Writing.SE: writing.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2286/36670
    – April Salutes Monica C.
    Commented Dec 3, 2019 at 13:51

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