Let me tell you a story. Myself and friends used to have a favorite place with casual atmosphere and great food. We used to go there several times a week, netting them ~$1000 by a conservative estimate a month (to put things into perspective, it's the upper end of an average non-IT monthly income where I live) from visits alone. We kept recommending the place to other friends and coworkers. Staff knew us well and have built quite a rapport with us.

Then new management happened. First, they laid off staff we knew. Fine, we kept going there, and eventually came to friendly terms with the new ones. Then, they laid off those ones. Finally, they decided to make the establishment fancier, which killed the atmosphere as well. We haven't been to the place once ever since. No one recommends it anymore either.

In case the key takeaway from the story isn't clear enough, the most critical thing to understand is the reasons why your community returns to the place or stops doing so. No amount of knowledge about a specific community will help you if you don't understand those.

One of the reasons is the feeling of ownership members of the community have (or, in our case, a lack thereof). Ownership here refers to not feeling like an outsider, which includes (but is, as they say, not limited to):

• being able to build rapport with staff, opportunities for which are steadily becoming more and more scarce (October, 2023 layoffs, May, 2023 layoffs, 2020 layoffs);
• being heard (keeping saying "we are listening" when your actions speak otherwise doesn't count, examples of which are too numerous to fit into the character limit);
• feeling that owners' ideals are compatible (for example, which is especially true of a network built on volunteer efforts, that the sole goal is not making as much money as possible);
• feeling valued (applied to the network, it's community-requested features being prioritized, open and frequent communication, feedback actually taken into account, following the broader consensus when introducing / changing policies, etc.).

P. S.

I left the community that I considered basically my online home for many years (Stack Overflow) back in mid June exactly over the company, through its actions, showing that it's not understanding (or, worse, is understanding and willfully disregarding) those reasons.

We keep telling you the same things, just differently worded (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and many, many others) — if you really want to understand us, members (former or present) of communities, listen.

Let me tell you a story. Myself and friends used to have a favorite place with casual atmosphere and great food. We used to go there several times a week, netting them ~$1000 by a conservative estimate a month (to put things into perspective, it's the upper end of an average non-IT monthly income where I live) from visits alone. We kept recommending the place to other friends and coworkers. Staff knew us well and have built quite a rapport with us.

Then new management happened. First, they laid off staff we knew. Fine, we kept going there, and eventually came to friendly terms with the new ones. Then, they laid off those ones. Finally, they decided to make the establishment fancier, which killed the atmosphere as well. We haven't been to the place once ever since. No one recommends it anymore either.

In case the key takeaway from the story isn't clear enough, the most critical thing to understand is the reasons why your community returns to the place or stops doing so. No amount of knowledge about a specific community will help you if you don't understand those.

One of the reasons is the feeling of ownership members of the community have (or, in our case, a lack thereof). Ownership here refers to not feeling like an outsider, which includes (but is, as they say, not limited to):

• being able to build rapport with staff, opportunities for which are steadily becoming more and more scarce (October, 2023 layoffs, May, 2023 layoffs, 2020 layoffs);
• being heard (continuing to say "we are listening" when your actions speak otherwise doesn't count, examples of which are too numerous to fit into the character limit);
• feeling that owners' ideals are compatible (for example, which is especially true of a network built on volunteer efforts, that the sole goal is not making as much money as possible);
• feeling valued (applied to the network, it's community-requested features being prioritized, open and frequent communication, feedback actually taken into account, following the broader consensus when introducing / changing policies, etc.).

P. S.

I left the community that I considered basically my online home for many years (Stack Overflow) back in mid June exactly over the company, through its actions, showing that it's not understanding (or, worse, is understanding and willfully disregarding) those reasons.

We keep telling you the same things, just differently worded (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and many, many others) — if you really want to understand us, members (former or present) of communities, listen.