> perhaps that's due to the amount of time they have invested in somebody else's commercial enterprise ("our community") while believing it's something more. >

> perhaps that's due to the amount of time they have invested in somebody else's commercial enterprise ("our community") while believing it's something more. > Perhaps what they are trying to say is the "something more" (presumably the voluntary contributions) is being undermined by paid staff. It's not clear. You have it right, this matches sentiments I've read by long-term contributors. For many of them, contributing to "our community" and improving SO as a knowledge base are sufficient motivation to donate vast amounts of free time. If SO no longer cares to at least pretend they are more than a corporate entity that extracts money from voluntary unpaid labor, those contributions will likely dwindle.