[_fat_santa]

IMHO their moderation practices is precisely why they are seeing this decline, like you said SO is a great resource to read but I've never asked a question outside of a handful of times over the years and every time the question was locked, deleted, etc.

On the one hand I get their argument that they want only the highest quality answers on there but in that heavy handed moderation they now have another problem which is no one outside of a handful of individuals actually wants to post or contribute.

I think if SO didn't have such heavy handed moderation practices they would have lower quality answers on there but they would also not be experiencing such a gradual decline.