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3 answers
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What can/should we do about the homepage currently being flooded by 'housekeeping'?

Right now, staff members are performing a cleanup of various status-review and status-deferred tags for functionality which is no longer supported (think legacy Jobs, Winter Bash). While some ...
Glorfindel's user avatar
  • 256k
152 votes
7 answers
1k views

Farewell Yaakov and thanks for the haiku!

You may soon notice one fewer diamond around the site. The amazing developer, tech lead, and community advocate Yaakov Ellis - user 51(!) - has taken an opportunity elsewhere and today, December 7th, ...
Catija's user avatar
  • 111k
161 votes
7 answers
2k views

Thank You, V2Blast

V2Blast is one of those folks who - to me represented a rare mix of skills. I knew him before he was hired and I often found he was a tireless advocate of the places he community managed at and ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
-254 votes
54 answers
46k views

Practical effects of the October 2023 layoff

I hope that by now you’ve all had a chance to read and digest the announcement and the blog post about today’s layoff. This was not an easy decision to make, nor is this an easy conversation to have. ...
Philippe's user avatar
  • 21.2k
273 votes
18 answers
4k views

Thank you, Catija

I've had the pleasure of working with some great community managers here. Cat is one of those folks who's always been cheerful, and deeply cared about this spot. We often nagged her to go to sleep ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
-92 votes
3 answers
8k views

Community notice: October 2023 layoff announcement [duplicate]

I’d like to call your attention to today’s blog post from Prashanth. Unfortunately, we’ve made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by roughly 28%. There are more details at the blog, and I ...
Philippe's user avatar
  • 21.2k
3 votes
2 answers
319 views

Do staff that leave SE still participate in the community or do they just keep their rep/status and become regular users?

I've seen a couple of Farewell posts. Do staff with high or low rep keep it after they leave the company as a status/symbol, or do they come back as regular users and just help the community?
Big Joe's user avatar
  • 748
-55 votes
6 answers
6k views

May 2023 layoff impacting 58 SO/SE staff

A few minutes ago, CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar posted a note to our blog to share the news that Stack Overflow has made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by 58 people, or about 10% of our ...
Philippe's user avatar
  • 21.2k
42 votes
2 answers
1k views

Announcement: Teresa Dietrich leaves Stack

Some of you know Teresa Dietrich, our Chief Product Officer. Teresa’s last day with the company was Friday, April 21st. In the 3+ years that she was here, Teresa had a huge impact on the company and ...
Philippe's user avatar
  • 21.2k
7 votes
2 answers
194 views

Maybe we need a 'generic' account for some staff activities

Every year, we end up needing to get community managers to get someone to change the selected answer for this post. If I understand correctly, this needs a bit of a special tool or developer time. We ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
-14 votes
2 answers
164 views

Has a mandatory comment for the vote system ever been trialled?

I have seen discussions of a mandatory comment system for downvotes discussed both on and off Stack Exchange sites. Take for example this community wiki discussion. The accepted answers raises some ...
fdcpp's user avatar
  • 81
-13 votes
1 answer
478 views

Is Stack Exchange going to limit content related to work about open-source code or statistical data likely to be under a ban in the United States?

The Office of Foreign Assets Control which is the agency for managing sanctions, took sanctions not only against the organisation of an open source project, but made it broad enough to target the open ...
user2284570's user avatar
  • 1,655
-7 votes
2 answers
197 views

Do we really need "new contributor" messages for Stack Exchange staff?

From this Chess.SE meta post we have: It feels a bit mismatched for this message to pop up for Stack Exchange staff. Question: Do we really need "new contributor" messages for Stack ...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
319 views

What is a "valued" associate in 2022?

Two days ago, Emerson joined the T&S team. As the title suggests, he is considered as a "valued associate". This led me to the question: What is a valued associate and do you have "...
Itération 122442's user avatar
31 votes
5 answers
666 views

Announcing our new Manager, Community Trust & Safety: Cesar M

When I joined Stack Overflow (the company, not the site), I was initially asked to work on a nascent Trust and Safety team. This was a new team for the community department, just formed, at the ...
Philippe's user avatar
  • 21.2k
75 votes
1 answer
679 views

Thank you, Marc Gravell!

Today, valued associate #6 Marc Gravell announced he's leaving the company: Excited, scared, happysad. The end of a personal era; after over 11 years (https://stackoverflow.blog/2010/06/09/welcome-...
Glorfindel's user avatar
  • 256k
1 vote
0 answers
51 views

Does Stack Exchange have a mechanism to ask users about changes? [duplicate]

Sometimes we get fait accompli declarations like We’ve removed the option to disable the fixed top bar which turn out to get lots of downvotes. I am sure that I don't need to quote more than just ...
Andrew Morton's user avatar
51 votes
2 answers
448 views

Thank you, Jarrod Dixon

Jarrod Dixon, Stack Overflow Valued Associate #00002, announced yesterday that he is no longer working at Stack Overflow: @jarrod_dixon: After over 13 years at @StackOverflow, today is my last day :( ...
Mithical's user avatar
  • 84.5k
34 votes
18 answers
2k views

What's one thing that you wish we remembered?

Twice this week, I heard some permutation on the phrase "if only [they (mods, staff)] knew that we...." In the first case, it was "if only the staff knew how much time we spend on sock ...
Philippe's user avatar
  • 21.2k
52 votes
3 answers
486 views

Farewell, Brian!

Thursday we said goodbye to Brian Nickel, the dev largely responsible for the (sadly, now de-listed) Stack Exchange iOS app... but he's done much more than that in his time here as a valued member of ...
Catija's user avatar
  • 111k
79 votes
3 answers
829 views

So long, and thanks for all the fish Nick Craver!

Some folks tend to leave an indelible impression on the spaces they've been in, whether or not they're noticed. While admittedly, most of my interactions with Nick have been off the sites proper - ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
392 views

Are Philippe and Rosie doppelgängers?

Looking at the profile of Sara Chipps ♦ (our Director of community), something struck me as odd. She has recently posted, amongst others, two posts welcoming the latest additions to the CM team, ...
Luuklag's user avatar
  • 36.2k
15 votes
2 answers
468 views

What's the difference between a regular CM and a Staff CM?

I noticed there was an opening for a Staff CM on the work here page. Broadly speaking - the requirements are identical to our regular CMs. Requirements seem the same, with the 3-5 year experience ...
Journeyman Geek's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
656 views

What is a Curator? What is the Curator Team?

The recent Stack Exchange platform roadmap makes many references to "Curators", a "Curator Team", and a "Curator Support Team": https://stackoverflow.blog/2021/01/28/the-...
pkamb's user avatar
  • 4,739
-8 votes
2 answers
138 views

Is the SE feature request triage team overworked?

This feature request has been out there for 6 months with no real answer. It's not a major enhancement - it's just reversing a (seemingly useless) change. I don't expect an immediate change. But after ...
LevenTech's user avatar
  • 248
163 votes
16 answers
20k views

A big thank you, Tim Post

As you may have seen, this was Tim Post’s last week at Stack Overflow. To say that he has been a staple of this company for a very long time is an understatement. Tim has served as a community manager,...
Sara Chipps's user avatar
  • 5,158
179 votes
0 answers
3k views

Thank you, Tim Post [duplicate]

https://twitter.com/tinkertim/status/1326989993928237057 Tomorrow is my last day at @StackOverflow. I can't begin to say how grateful I am to everyone that made the last (almost) 8 years of my career ...
Machavity's user avatar
  • 27.5k
504 votes
7 answers
20k views

Thank you, Geoff

It seems that after 11 years, Geoff Dalgas - "Valued Associate #00003" - has decided to hang up his hat as a developer at Stack Exchange. That deserves... Some recognition and gratitude! Let'...
Shog9's user avatar
  • 454k
20 votes
1 answer
2k views

What exactly is the Community Evangelist role and what does it mean?

There is a Stack Exchange staff member with the role "Community Evangelist", as mentioned here: This person is not part of the Community Management Team, where their role is explained. What ...
Shadow Wizard's user avatar
60 votes
2 answers
5k views

The Community Teams @ Stack Exchange and how we work together

I wanted to share with you about who the people that work on our Community are, and how we are organized. For context, I (Teresa Dietrich) am the head of Product, Community, Design and Engineering, a ...
Teresa Dietrich's user avatar
18 votes
4 answers
476 views

Policy for SE employees influencing community decisions using mod powers

Under what conditions, if ever, is it acceptable for SE employees to influence community matters on the Meta site of a community they do not actively participate in by upvoting or downvoting posts? I’...
User that hates AI's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
139 views

Is the Stack Exchange Meta site advertised?

I've noticed that there are a low number of users on Stack Exchange Meta, compared to other SE sites, such as Stack Overflow. Do the Stack Exchange Team ever advertise this site?
Maytha8's user avatar
  • 189
-18 votes
1 answer
153 views

What recourse do I have if I believe an SO employee has unfairly declined a feature request? [closed]

I made a feature request a while back, and a Staff-marked user (who is a paid employee, as I understand correctly) marked it status-declined before the community had voted much on it (must have been -...
jamor77197's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
191 views

Can Community Moderators and Stack Overflow employees post answers on closed questions?

Since this doesn't appear to have been asked before: Can elected moderators (and Community Managers, and other Stack Overflow employees) post answers on Questions that have been closed? This would ...
nick012000's user avatar
32 votes
6 answers
2k views

Post-mortem or root cause analysis of the recent issues (late 2019-early 2020)

Teresa Dietrich recently posted regarding her and the company's efforts to restore community trust and repair the recent unpleasant issues. Now that the company is making at least some meaningful ...
Robert Columbia's user avatar
575 votes
19 answers
31k views

Change in roles for Jon Ericson (leaving SE)

It’s a bit surreal to be writing this post—not many people can say they left their dream job twice. Today is my last day as an employee of Stack Overflow. I’ll be joining College Confidential as their ...
Jon Ericson's user avatar
  • 79.8k
101 votes
15 answers
6k views

I am sorry. Please, accept my apology

To the Community Team and those behind them. To the developers and those who assist them. To any Stack Exchange employee who might have read something I said out of anger and took it personally. I am ...
Shadow Wizard's user avatar
195 votes
14 answers
8k views

How long can Moderator Resignation notices be featured?

How long are moderator resignation posts allowed to be featured in the sidebars of our sites?
curiousdannii's user avatar
809 votes
16 answers
43k views

Thank you, Robert Cartaino

The title says it all. Thank you, Robert Cartaino, for everything you did for SE and the community. I don't post much on MSE, but have been a mod for about eight years. There is a lot that can go on ...
mpdonadio's user avatar
  • 6,477
250 votes
7 answers
7k views

Why is SE gutting the CM team?

It looks like SE has fired two of the most experienced CMs just now. What does this mean for the community, and for the plans SE has for the future of the network? In a blog post about new feedback ...
Mad Scientist's user avatar
1607 votes
46 answers
58k views

Thank you, Shog9

@Shog9, a longtime Community Manager here at Stack Exchange, has just tweeted that he is no longer working at Stack Overflow: @shog9: Well... I suddenly find myself in need of work. If anyone's ...
Mithical's user avatar
  • 84.5k
181 votes
7 answers
6k views

Why was "An Update to our Community and an Apology" deleted?

Recently, Sara Chipps posted her message Update: an agreement with Monica Cellio. After reading it, I wanted to compare it with her previous post about this subject. It turns out that she deleted it. ...
José Carlos Santos's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
349 views

Are there any guidelines for changes of this magnitude?

By now most people are aware that the value of question upvotes was changed, and millions of reputation points were retroactively awarded. For the purposes of this question let's ignore any debates ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 10.5k
62 votes
8 answers
2k views

How can one appropriately and constructively criticize or complain about a Stack Exchange employee on Meta Stack Exchange?

Related: Is this an appropriate place to call for the resignation of an SO employee? In an answer to the question above, Shog9 ♦ mentioned that calling for a staff member's immediate removal can be ...
Robert Columbia's user avatar
119 votes
11 answers
5k views

Is this an appropriate place to call for the resignation of an SO employee?

In a completely hypothetical situation wherein a known employee of Stack Overflow takes public actions that are objectively detrimental to both the company and community, and for which actions shows ...
Caleb Brinkman's user avatar
45 votes
2 answers
1k views

Social media disclaimer policy for SE Staff

The most recent SE incident (as well as several others earlier) was largely inflated by the interaction of SE/SE Staff with the press and some social media interactions (tweets/re-tweets, in ...
Anton Menshov's user avatar
150 votes
7 answers
3k views

How do users escalate concerns about an abusive employee?

Is there a formal grievance policy for reporting incidents where you believe an employee of Stack Exchange has been malicious towards a user of the network? I'm looking for some official, ideally ...
user avatar
122 votes
1 answer
2k views

Will we hear from the Director of Public Q&A regarding current events?

As one of the primary participants in the current drama theatre that is MSE, will the Director of Public Q&A direct her efforts to the public Q&A (not Twitter)? I hold hope that if / when she ...
Drew's user avatar
  • 997
-10 votes
1 answer
496 views

Does or should the Stack Exchange team serve at the pleasure of the community?

Does the Stack Exchange team serve at the pleasure of the community? If so, what can the community do to hold the Stack Exchange team to account? If not, are there any plans to give the community the ...
JJJ's user avatar
  • 4,427
532 votes
8 answers
21k views

SE Inc. Director of Public Q&A retweets bad-faith, misrepresentative tweet

As we all know, SE Inc. has engaged in highly problematic and widely criticized actions against the SE community and specific moderators. Earlier today (Oct 11th, 2019), Ms. Sara Chipps, "...
einpoklum's user avatar
  • 26.9k