Timeline for answer to Join us for our first community-wide AMA (Ask Me Anything) with Stack Overflow’s CEO (and a few others) on February 26, 2025 by Alex
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Feb 26, 2025 at 15:58 | comment | added | einpoklum | I wish the SE network had been more democratic, or at least more answerable to the community - but that's fundamentally not the case. So I believe your premise is flawed: SE Inc. was always a business and always a plutocracy. The CEO serves the people with ploutos, i.e. wealth, i.e. the company owners. If that were different, we would see some binding commitment to such service. Still, +1 for bringing the subject up. | |
| Feb 12, 2025 at 15:49 | comment | added | Alex | @TylerH I read and voted on your question before posting mine -- the main difference was, that your question asks about the present -- "Why?" The Why is clear to me -- money; my question asks about the future -- Where will you draw the line? Because Money will remain a factor indefinitely, even until SE content loses its value; but there has to be a point at which they will say, enough is enough? | |
| Feb 12, 2025 at 15:20 | comment | added | TylerH | This appears to simply repeat, just using much more political and ambiguous language, my question here: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/406399/… | |
| Feb 9, 2025 at 2:39 | comment | added | PM 2Ring | On Jeff Atwood & charity: blog.codinghorror.com/stay-gold-america | |
| Feb 8, 2025 at 22:15 | comment | added | wizzwizz4 | @ShadowWizard We are currently doing politics. I am doing politics in response to your politics in response to politics on DoingPolitics Stack Exchange. You'll have to be more specific than "please leave politics out of this". | |
| Feb 8, 2025 at 22:11 | history | edited | cocomac | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Feb 8, 2025 at 19:39 | comment | added | user152859 | Please leave politics out of this. I agree about SE being too much of a business, but even if the CEO or management or whoever sails the ship has certain political view and opinions, it's not relevant. | |
| Feb 8, 2025 at 13:29 | comment | added | NoDataDumpNoContribution | @wizzwizz4 Maybe, but we should not act too surprised now. At least not since the company belongs to Prosus, is my opinion. There isn't really a contract to that regard, just expectations and if they are reasonable or not... | |
| Feb 8, 2025 at 13:14 | comment | added | wizzwizz4 | @NoDataDumpNoContribution Companies are not obliged to make money. I would expect a private company to not have "make money" as its focus if it is stewarding a community resource. We do not, under any circumstances, "gotta be fair to them" if they're destroying what we have for their own enrichment. | |
| Feb 7, 2025 at 21:29 | comment | added | NoDataDumpNoContribution | @Alex Maybe that was the idea in the beginning but since 2019 the company belongs to an even larger company. It doesn't sound fair to hold it to a higher standard than what you would expect from any other private company in the world. SO took venture capital as far as I know to get started. The financial backers weren't in it for the charity effort. They were in it for the money. Seems like a misunderstanding from the side of the users then. | |
| Feb 7, 2025 at 20:11 | history | edited | Alex | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Feb 7, 2025 at 20:05 | comment | added | Alex | @NoDataDumpNoContribution But at the same time, you do have a point as well. When I first signed up, I don't remember being aware of this profit-focused orientation. I remember Jeff being very active, and I realized that he's profiting a lot less than the amount of time he's putting into it. I thought it was about people helping people -- a "charity effort" in your words -- and the advertisement was chiefly there in order to pay for the hosting... | |
| Feb 7, 2025 at 18:50 | comment | added | Proud anti-zionist | @NoDataDumpNoContribution You entirely miss the point. It's a massive power concentration in all the wrong hands; the hands of people that are not in a position to be held accountable, and even worse, the power that lays in this isn't even clear out of the gate to most people. | |
| Feb 7, 2025 at 18:48 | comment | added | NoDataDumpNoContribution | Having said that once upon the time business leaders seemed to have a bit of morale but then they owned the business, which is a totally different case. | |
| Feb 7, 2025 at 18:46 | comment | added | Proud anti-zionist | Thanks a lot for lifting up an incredibly important point that would otherwise be left out. I honestly don't see much reason to trying to actually engage with SE to get answers, but at least this points out the nasty reality behind the power concentration that lays in this. These LLMs are not democratic whatsoever; they are fully under the control of individuals we know do not take the society's needs and rights into account, and they themselves aren't being held accountable. It's important to point out how dystopian this path is. | |
| Feb 7, 2025 at 18:41 | comment | added | NoDataDumpNoContribution | I'm not sure if autocracy has anything to do with it. It's just a business not a charity. The only purpose is to make money. If there is something good happening as a side product, it's fine but the owners decide what it will be. And that would be true and desirable in a democracy as well. It's not like SE is in the gun or drug business or promoting say Trump's or Putin's worldviews. We, the users have to stand up, so that the businesses simply adapt to us. If you don't like SE you can simply make your own competing service or join a competing initiative. | |
| Feb 7, 2025 at 16:49 | history | edited | Alex | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Feb 7, 2025 at 16:40 | history | answered | Alex | CC BY-SA 4.0 |