What do I think?

When I first found this site it blew me away with just how much information was packed into it. I learned how to code almost exclusively because of SO (Though I learned to code right through working with people). And while I never asked a question, the community that built this website took care of me. And when I began to feel savvy enough to try to start answering, the company behind the website began to push for an increase of noise and performed a lot of terrible public missteps in very quick succession that still dazed that community that helped me get where I am today.

I never felt unwelcome, that was not why I never asked a question. I understood that the site's mission was to answer questions, not do homework. And when I did the homework, I found the site had already answered the question I had.

Perhaps the part of this that really 'grinds my gears' is that after witnessing years of requests for tools to make the lives of those who volunteer their time in maintaining this site, when asked about investing into the site, the response is:

We need the economic engine to sustainably invest back in the community.

You need the community sustainability to invest into your economic engine. If you want to drive new users to the site and have them feel welcomed, you need to invest into making sure that the users understand what the site is designed for. Of course someone who has no idea what the site rules and etiquette are asks an off-topic question that gets voted into deletion is going to feel unwelcome. And while you have made some progress in the direction, there is still work to be done and plenty of suggestions of how to do it if you looked. You need to stop putting all the blame onto the users who are trying to maintain the site.

Site satisfaction survey still gives feedback that users' top concern is that they don't feel welcome. We need to listen this data.

That is going to be a constant pain point. You will never be able to satisfy everyone, ever. Not in a thousand years of data collection. Period. This is a global website, their are cultural, linguistic, religious, and so on differences around the world. I get that money is king in the eyes of the company, and new users with more exposure to your paid services is the goal, but if you keep at it in this way where you pit everyone against one another and then tell everyone to play nice:

It would be nice to see some real actions towards repairing what they continue to insist on breaking by 'renewing' the community and start unifying the users. This drive keeps insisting that I am a bad person and need to 'commit to higher standards'. I truly hope they don't think that about the majority of their users and that was just a quick note obfuscation.

I have high standards in my eyes, so much so that I refrain from asking questions whenever I have a problem and insist on finding the solution by breaking it down (on SO). I have also refrained from answering questions because of these high standards. It's perhaps these high standards being the reason I don't think SO is unwelcoming in the first place.

Sites like this should have high standards, and with those standards, it should be understood that not everyone is going to be able to meet them. I think it's in the interest of the company to understand this and either make the decision that this is now a homework site like it's competitors, or concede that some of the reason users feel unwelcome is on them and to fix it isn't to just impose new rules but to invest into the new users' understanding of what these sites are and how to use them.

At the end of the day, I'm just a vampire with near nil rep. I'm neither a new user or a heavy contributor so I don't imagine making any mark. But some of these people have been trying for years to help, with much more experience and passion towards building this site. I hate seeing them washed with being 'unwelcoming'. I really would like to see the company taking some responsibility and action towards 'repairing' this and stop 'renewing' the community.

Whew, must have been thinking a lot...