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Please, don't take this as something looking to create problems. I'm really concerned.

On November 18, 2023 the following post was created: Let's talk about (community) health

The last sentence says:

As always, I'll be monitoring for the next several days to read/respond.

The above is a public promise done on site having a known International audience. Considering that the post was created on a Saturday night (2023-11-18 21:17:25Z according to the post-date tooltip) before a long US weekend due to a holiday, what are the fair expectations about such a promise? To be crystal clear, this is a rhetorical question.

The only comment visible on Philippe's Meta Stack Exchange user account since the question was created is a comment posted on November 21, 2023 to Mithical's answer to We're rolling back the changes to the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)

Let's talk about (community) health has several answers but there isn't any signal on it of had read. There is no response.

There are a couple of posts from members of the CM Team, Cesar M and Rosie, that look good:

Yesterday, Mithical created a new question asking for a progress update:

What is the status of the changes to the moderator agreement agreed to during the negotiations in August?

A few days earlier there was another question, complaining about the lack of keeping the public posted:

Lack of Company follow-through / Company failure to meet expectations

What I'm missing?

Related

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    Thanksgiving was last week in the US, so they probably weren't working for half the week. Not sure there's anything unusual or concerning here about the lack of staff activity, at least not yet.
    – Laurel
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 3:22
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    @Laurel , What about the other half of the week? The post was created during the weekend of the previous week. I'm sorry. While I sympathize with not touching digital devices for work during holidays, the argument doesn't explain what is happening. At least it doesn't relief my concerns.
    – Rubén
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 3:39
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    Big ships take a long time to show down. Lots of industries take their foot off the gas pedal in preparation for the Xmas+New Year's break, and don't plan any big moves after Thanksgiving. I wouldn't be surprised if that was happening at SO. Of course, sleazy execs sometimes take advantage of this, and choose this time to push through unpopular changes, and that wouldn't surprise me either.
    – JonathanZ
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 5:03
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    The 21st got a response. The 23rd began a holiday weekend [sic] to yesterday. Nothing (literally) "is going on".
    – philipxy
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 7:27
  • @philipxy What are the fair expectations from a public promise done on site having a known International audience considering that the post was created on a Saturday night (2023-11-18 21:17:25Z according to the post date tooltip) previous to a US long weekend due to a holiday?
    – Rubén
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 16:18
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    @philipxy Phillipe said, explicitly, that he would be monitoring the question for the next several days to read/answer things. He didn't mention he would be taking a break for the holidays. If he said so, no worries, but as-is it feels really bad. He didn't have to say he would be monitoring the question, and yet he did so - setting up expectation for a dialogue we long for but we aren't getting.
    – T. Sar
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 16:21
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    While I agree with the general idea here, it lack focus and I can't see the point in this question. Also, if they failed to respond to previous requests about this very same topic, why would they respond here? Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 21:25

1 Answer 1

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No response in this case isn't all that unexpected.

They're short staffed and have been biting off more than they can chew for years. Most new features or updates are released undercooked, to be "fixed" at some indeterminate time in the future. Any staff post being followed up on would be more of a "pleasant" surprise than an expectation at this point. Even the announcement of the new "all discussions" page and the bulletin replacement A/B test went with little to no follow up. Still nothing on the ongoing AI Banner in Answer box test.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't quite get the point of repeatedly being surprised by this.

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    To their credit, the one big response we did get was the AUP rollback, which many users (especially mods) said was their top priority. The rollback was obviously not something that SE planned to do, which means they probably didn't get around to everything they did plan.
    – Laurel
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 17:33
  • @Laurel that and the new colors update. Definitely didn't mean to insinuate that they never responde, but responding to the community base/customers/outside world as a business is often a very time consuming action.
    – Kevin B
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 17:35
  • Let's talk about (community) health is very loosely coupled to any technical feature release or update. Had the policy affair required all the Community Management Team bandwidth? I would like to have the voice of people like David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done, and someone who has taken the leadership that Peter Druker left, among others, over what is happening. Still, I think SE, Inc. is far from their league to turn their eyes here.
    – Rubén
    Commented Nov 28, 2023 at 18:54

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