What’s going on?

I’ve observed with interest, but have not participated in, the many meta-discussions surrounding a handful of issues lately. These include the removal of IPS from HNQ, the changing of question vote rep levels, the retro-active switch of the CC version, and most especially, the case of Monica Cellio.

I found it all very upsetting, but for too long I chose to merely observe. I did not change my avatar, did not change my user name, did not link to nor donate to the legal defense fund, did not answer or comment on the metas, and more or less continued as normal. I am now ashamed of my lack of action these last few months, and it is time to change.

With the recent announcement of the agreement with Monica, and the phrasing of this announcement that clearly blames the victim, I must draw back from activities which might indicate I have even the slightest support for Stack Overflow. I sincerely believe SO has committed criminal libel, violation of content license, and possibly other illegal acts. Further, the leadership has acted in bad faith, and ignored the wishes of its user base. Therefore, for the foreseeable future, my intentions are as follows.

I will:

• if while searching for the answer to an issue or obscure error, and the result includes links to Stack Exchange sites, I will read these. Further, if the question and one or more answer prove useful, I will up-vote as a thank-you to the posters;
• check once in a while if I have received any new answers or comments to my old contributions, and provide a response as and when necessary.

I will not:

• ask or answer any questions, or comment on any questions or answers;
• casually browse through questions and answers;
• perform any reviews or related tasks, i.e. cast close votes;
• display "flair" on my own website
• continue to have the Stack Exchange App installed on any mobile devices.

My anticipated timeline for this hiatus is the remainder of 2019 and all of 2020. I may be persuaded to alter the timeline if I see definitive indications of change and contrition on the part of Stack Overflow and its leadership.

The CobaltDuck flocks with those who think this is wrong, and is flying south for a while. Best Wishes to all my friends on the network.