No one is listening.
I'm listening. I really am. I'm trying to take on board all of your [the community as a whole, not just you personally] concerns, and I really appreciate your suggestions.
This isn't a perfect world, and we can't keep everyone happy all the time - case in point I have been told by multiple people that they would prefer the current new rule be permanent.
The new rule won't be permanent, as I and many others do not feel that is what is best for the community. We genuinely don't want to stifle valuable discussion, and just need to find the right way to allow it so that things can run smoothly.
We're also trying to be more open and transparent about this process than we have traditionally been in the past.
It's just going to take a little time.
I'm doing all of this in my spare time. I'm also running the social media accounts, answering support emails, approving articles for publication, moderating, approving ads for display, and a myriad other small tasks. I'm also working a job, raising two young children, have had a very bad year with sickness and multiple deaths amongst family and close friends, an unwell youngest daughter, and am very unwell myself.
If this temporary ban on discussion of a small number of largely off-topic subjects really makes you want to leave the community I'm genuinely sorry for that, but honestly I would
really appreciate just a little more patience; you've been told this is a temporary measure, and most others seem happy to give us a little time.
I just
can't solve it for you "right now", this second. If that's really a deal breaker I'm genuinely sorry, and I'll be sorry to see you go if that's what you feel you need to do.
You're right that this policy is effectively a band-aid; that's why it's temporary and we'll be pulling it off soon to take more effective measures that address the actual problem rather than just some symptoms.
We
are going to amend the rules. We
are going to implement policy changes, some of which will be based on the suggestions we have received here. We
are listening. If you can wait a couple of weeks you'll start to see those things happening very soon, but they're just
not going to happen
right now.