Following from Stack Overflow, and as other sites will soon have to (if they don't already have them, I have decided, with some approval, to announce the upcoming June 5 strike on this child meta. It has no scheduled ending, only when the goals are resolved. As the title suggests, there are 5 main questions about this that I would like to answer. So, let's start.
Who
You can see in this strike letter, although, it doesn't include everyone who is striking. It does have (as of 21:16 UTC June 27, 2023) 125 current moderators, 20 former moderators or staff, and 1500 total users onboard at this time.
What
As is detailed in both the strike letter, discord, and the github, we will be suspending certain activities. Moderators will (in addition to what the normal users do):
- Stop handling flags
Normal users will:
- Stop flagging
- Stop reviewing
- Stop running charcoal
- Metasmoke still has old spam for review but is no longer auto flagging
- It is disputed over whether they should stop posting on main sites
- Stop voting
DO NOT Upvote Spam:No voting of any kind. Also, don’t be destructive.
DO NOT ACTIVELY RUIN THE SITE: This is a strike of inaction, not spamming. The goals are the following:
To show SE that it needs its curators and moderators and contributors.
To reverse the unbanning of AI generated content.
It is disputed if reversing the vote arrows is a goal
It is disputed if stopping the whole AI stack wants is a goal
To get SE to listen to community feedback
Clarity on policy
To get the data dumps reinstated (Update:This has been done;thank god. Hopefully the first goal down of many)
14.It is disputed if the removal of the prompt design site and the community stakeholders group is a goal
When
The strike begins on June 5 and will end when our demands are met.
Why
The Stack Overflow Meta post explains the why pretty well, but I'll summarize here. Stack Exchange has decided to make the following unpopular changes:
- Refusing to listen to community feedback
- Making an AI with the seeming goal of replacing us human contributors
- Wasting time on unpopular vote arrows
- Unbanning AI generated content
- Firing more of the workforce
- Vagueness on policy 7.bypassing established methods to force an unpopular change 8.removal of the data dump
A note on AI generated content:It was banned because it had a habit of making seemingly correct, but wrong, posts that were plagarized and took a lot of moderation effort with limit poster effort.
How to participate
You can join by signing onto the strike and agreeing to not do the listed moderation and curation activities.
Final notes
This is not meant to do any of the following:
- Pressure moderators or other users into joining if they don't want to
This is meant to do the following:
- Increase the visibility and inform users of the strike.
- Explain to SE what and why we are doing this.
