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Is there a possibility that recent high tensions between moderators and Stack Exchange managers will result in the shutdown of a number of Stack Exchange sites?

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    Ask magic 8-ball Commented Oct 6, 2019 at 18:43
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    SE sites will be shutdown for all kind of reasons, most often due to lack of events. The current up-roar of only a few users might even drive more traffic to sites ...
    – rene Mod
    Commented Oct 6, 2019 at 18:55
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    I believe a better, possibly more answerable question would be Could Stack Exchange sites drastically change in shape and community because of recent events? Commented Oct 6, 2019 at 18:59
  • @FrédéricHamidi - interesting, but why should it be more answerable ?
    – Gio
    Commented Oct 6, 2019 at 19:01
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    Read Glorfindel's answer -- chances are the sites will stay. However, for some of us it will be the same as (and sometimes worse than) the sites "shutting down". Commented Oct 6, 2019 at 19:04
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    See, other sites were more affected in different ways. Not so much the language sites. But if the language sites ever do get swamped by animated and soft porn ads, and if someone is suspended because they misgendered someone don't come running back here and complain. Commented Oct 7, 2019 at 11:43
  • Who knows. Let's start archiving/dumping the sites now.
    – kenorb
    Commented Jan 17, 2020 at 13:56
  • Will Meta Stack Exchange be removed now? & Is Stack Exchange still interested in cooperating with the community? & Thank you, Shog9 & Thank you, Robert Cartaino. It seems somebody wants to fire everybody and burn everything to the ground.
    – kenorb
    Commented Jan 17, 2020 at 14:01
  • @kenorb - and this meta.stackexchange.com/questions/342424/…
    – Gio
    Commented Jan 17, 2020 at 16:27

2 Answers 2

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We can't know this for sure, but IMHO it's not likely.

In the past, sites have only been shut down because there were not enough people willing to moderate the site. Yes, some smaller sites have lost one or more moderators, and Stack Exchange generally strives to have at least three moderators per site. But it's likely that at some point, when this mess has settled down, they'll either organize pro-tempore elections on those sites or just appoint new users willing to moderate.

I don't expect Stack Overflow Inc. to shutdown certain sites as a sort of punishment; why would a community be punished because of an argument with a few elected people on those sites? (Who might have the support of a much larger group on that site, sure.) But then, I didn't expect them to fire a particular moderator the way they did either.

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    On many low-traffic sites, "three moderators" is nominal, and there's actually only one moderator actually keeping things going. If that moderator leaves, the site could well be shut down for lack of moderation. None of the small sites appears to have been affected by the recent wave of resignations, though.
    – Mark
    Commented Oct 6, 2019 at 22:32
  • @Mark Literature has been affected.
    – gerrit
    Commented Nov 1, 2019 at 15:09
  • @gerrit, I consider a "small site" to be one that's still fairly dependent on the moderators for day-to-day curation. For example, of the ten most recent closures on Literature, six were closed by the community. Compare to Monero, where all ten were closed by moderators, with only four of them receiving even a single non-moderator close vote.
    – Mark
    Commented Nov 1, 2019 at 20:33
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The Workplace was left without active moderators for a week.

The high rep users and the Community Moderation team stepped up to cover the gaps during that period.

There’s no reason why this can’t continue until elections are held for the relevant site.

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