> The only thing we're currently actually in control of is our reaction to this.

Our reaction is being controlled. If we get angry, we are toxic. If we don't show anger, Stack Exchange believes they've solved their problem. At that point, there is no way for the community to make their voices heard on this platform, unless it's praising the company.

I very much disagree with all three of your proposals.

1. Angry rants. Constructive rants. Righteous indignation. Well thought out arguments. All of these have been ignored. This goes back further than September 2019. This goes back years and years. Stack Exchange, outside of the community management team, took a giant step back many years ago and let us run ourselves. We had the CMs around as a guiding hand, but effectively, the "built and run by you" part of the tour (second sentence) held up. Then the company came back to the table, saw all the nice sand castles we'd built and wanted to make them better. Except they showed up with something other than sand and chiseled away at the communities we've been building. They got upset that we were upset...after all, we're in *their* sandbox. Decorum spiraled from there. At this point, we are past being able to criticize the company. If something reflects badly on Stack Exchange, they don't want to see it any longer. For this reason alone, Meta is on its last legs.
2. Feedback mechanisms that are provided include meta. They also include occasional video chats. I'll give you one guess which former employee was a member of most of the ones I attended. Feedback channels also include chat rooms, moderator chat rooms and a Moderator Teams site. I've seen feedback in all of those. They are ignored. Or worse, acknowledged and given a pat on the head, then ignored.
3. Rewarding positive behavior is good, but it shouldn't be done to the exclusion of calling out things we don't like. Employees are worried about coming here. I'm not entirely sure why. I mean, every official, publicly posted thing done in the last few months has been a giant legal blob of nothing. The actions we've seen don't align with the words and values preached. I am more than willing to talk with employees (and frequently do), but that can't erase the pattern of behavior we've all seen. Promises to work on a task. Updates to a project that is then canceled. Beta periods of features that never get implements. Removal of site customization and uniqueness. Words matter, but not as much as the actions. Stack Exchange either is not telling the employees that come to the site and engage with us what is actually happening, is promising *way* more than it can deliver, or just doesn't respect the community and thinks we will say nothing.

I have complaints about Stack Exchange. I am, currently, free to express them here. When I don't have that freedom, I won't be here any more and will express them much more forcefully elsewhere.

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I propose an alternative strategy to getting through this:

1. Bring the new CEO forward on Meta to answer questions from the community. I have not seen anything from the CEO since they started in October. At least, not on Stack Exchange. I've seen a fair number of reports in the press about them. Come forward with your thoughts and present them to the community. *Defend them* to the community. Present your roadmap for Q&A, Teams, Jobs and anything else that impacts everything we do.
2. Stop saying "legal action" and providing lawyered language for the CM team to parrot back to us. Someone who is actually giving the orders needs to come forward and say it themselves or it needs to stop. The community can smell it from a mile away and every time it's posted another round of this begins. So, let the people you pay to manage the community actually do their job. They are here to build bridges and support our growth. You are crippling that. The distrust you've built up is very rapidly making this a situation that can't be resolved in a way that keeps the meta community around.
3. Select a project or two the community really wants to be completed and complete it. Rebuild some of that lost goodwill. There have been plenty of betas, announced projects, half demos, collaborations and "good ideas" over the last decade to write a book. Pick something that is feasible, non-trivial, and is wanted. Work from there. Knock a few of these out and watch that support rebound.
4. Stop issuing edicts without justification or further communication. Just stop. I, as a moderator, am not going to be the next person to parrot your words.