It is a good time to be completely candid:
We worked hard to get a solid policy in place for the torrent of AI/LLM material that was appearing on Ask Ubuntu. And by 'we' I mean the elected and community moderators, the Community that is what Ask Ubuntu should be all about.
This is a policy that worked well and a policy that was always ready for improvement, for modification as the world of AI/LLM matured.
What we experienced from Stack Exchange was neither improvement nor modification. They proposed first in secret, and then in a watered down public version, to sweep away our Community policy and to completely obstruct Moderator ability to deal with a flow of almost always extremely low quality, unverified material.
Not good enough Stack Exchange!
I am personally not happy to stand aside and watch this happen and I have undertaken the following:
- I have signed the letter of protest which has given a 'line in the sand' to Stack Exchange
- I have committed to the upcoming action as of Monday and will be withdrawing from all Moderator activities as of that time for the duration of the action
These are not actions taken lightly but in the face of a company that seems to have no interest in maintaining quality on the site, no interest in fostering Community and only great interest in their own bottom line: these steps are necessary...
Links:
- Open Letter to Stack Overflow, Inc. The open letter to the company that describes the issues leading up to the June 5th 2023 strike. There is a facility on this page to sign up and participate in the strike, if you wish.
- Stack Exchange is failing its community Journeyman Geek as usual gets to the heart of the matter: the disconnect between the company and the Community.
- What is the network policy regarding AI Generated content? The official announcement of the new policy. Bear in mind that this differs significantly from the version handed down to Moderators in a private forum.