[yladiz]

No, it wasn’t “not ‘welcoming’”, it was just “not welcoming”. Sure it’s the owners who forced this, but it’s not a bad thing to be more welcoming and thinking otherwise because “it’s better” is problematic. You should also blame the owners for not giving a shit about moderation for the low quality of things now, if you want to blame them for the push for being “welcoming”.

[avereveard]

You can be welcoming and still enforce guidelines, it's not an either/or situation.

[emodendroket]

At the end of the day enforcing guidelines involves telling people "sorry, this is not the kind of question we want here," and people are always going to find this less than welcoming -- justifiably so, since they've objectively been excluded. You can be as nice as you want about it, and I'm not advocating being rude or cruel, but it doesn't matter.

[yladiz]

Right, I think so too. My point is more that moderation doesn’t imply being unwelcoming, and they are more or less distinct. A great example is HN, it’s a pretty welcoming place with good moderation, albeit at a much smaller size than SO.