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    "Rebuilding trust and goodwill's essential" That's sooo 2020. I think it is far too late for that. I think the company should focus on reality checks: sell SO to someone for a few thousand dollars and then move on. Maybe invest the money from the sale into AI-something-something, yay! With new ownership maybe we can rebuild. Assuming the new owners are either interested in profits or in running a Q&A site. Prosus is interested in neither. Commented Jan 23 at 9:30
  • tbf, the problems started before prosus -so its not entirely them. And by then we didn't really have access to the decision makers and well, we had much happier, well engaged communities then so they'd clearly gotten something right. Commented Jan 23 at 10:21
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    A normal board wouldn't just sit passively and watch their money get erased, so even if the problems started before Prosus, they are clearly in no shape to run any form of company. Also it is likely that all AI-something-something nonsense comes from the board. And the only way to get rid of that board is to sell the company. Commented Jan 23 at 11:20
  • I don't have a billion and half burning in my pocket, nor do I see SE IPOing, so maybe we could get some degree of community buy in, and maybe a seat on the board. The stuff I'm talking about however is very much something that's doable with somewhat less buy in from upper management. I'm trying to pick the battles that could be won, rather than wholesale reimagining the company. Changing attitudes, and small investments in winning over the community feels more feasable than finding a benevolent and deep pocketed new owner, for now. Commented Jan 23 at 12:46
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    It isn't worth a billion and a half, that investment is gone since long. The company will be worth a few thousand dollars or so. Maybe 1 dollar, since it is mostly about finding someone willing to take up the hot potato. Commented Jan 23 at 13:54
  • The main point being ownership and high level company politics would be out of the scope of what I was writing about. My main interests, concerns and maybe competencies are very much about things going on at ground level. Ownership and high level company things would be out of the scope of the answer. Most of the things I'd see as a start wouldn't need massive investments - just a change in mindset. Commented Jan 23 at 14:10
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    But they already tried to rebuild trust. Then the folks who did that left. Then someone else was hired and tried again. Then they left. Then they kind of stopped trying. It was the Prosus era that got rid of a whole lot of very competent staff, which would have what it takes to fix things. It's clearly not a priority for Prosus, they only want AI-something-something and the rest of the site can burn. Commented Jan 23 at 15:08
  • The problems started a lot earlier. I'd say somewhere around the tail end of when Joel was the CEO, but I get the impression it was other folks who made a lot of the decisions. I wouldn't leave it all at the Prosus ownership's feet or even the current CEO. Our problems are very deep seated and go back much further Commented Jan 23 at 15:13
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    Yes I agree but my point is that the current ownership shows no interest in actually rebuilding trust. Rather they do the opposite, over and over. The moderator strike and what was agreed then for example, is already a distant memory and not something that anyone will keep in mind when launching the next AI feature. Commented Jan 23 at 15:17