The one complaining is still here

Pocket edition. This is a shorter version of a longer article; you can read the full edition when you have more time.

Whoever bothers to protest about something on a server is still counting on it being able to change. Whoever no longer believes that doesn't argue: they stop logging in, and that departure warns no one.

The economist Albert Hirschman described these two reactions to any organisation that gets worse. You can exit, which means leaving, or use your voice, which means saying so. And they are very different: exit is free, instant and silent; speaking up costs time, costs exposing yourself and sometimes costs being taken for the chat's resident nuisance.

From that comes an uncomfortable consequence for anyone who runs a place. The only one of the two that carries information is the expensive one. Complaints explain what's failing; departures just leave a gap, and they always arrive late.

That's why silence isn't contentment. A quiet chat can mean everything is going well or that there's no one left who cares enough to try, and from the outside the two look very alike.