Where is Wheat?

Question

I'm not sure to what extent this question can be answered, but it's one I'm desperately curious about.

I followed some meta questions and links to chat logs, but I still can't figure out what the dispute was about. This is not intended to dig-up dirt or expose anyone or anything. So, please keep this page clean and directed to this point:

Is there anything, we, the community can do, to bring Wheat Williams back?

His valuable contributions remain as unsearchable ghost answers, but if he's upset and left, then we won't be getting any more. Maybe that's selfish, but I feel sad to lose him.

Answer 1

I think we all feel the same way about Wheat — he was a great asset. Unfortunately he seems to have made his decision and I think we should respect it.

Ultimately, it seems that he didn't like SE's focus on Answers-as-answers. He had a few posts that, while often containing great information, were unrelated or tangential to the question. When users commented on this, downvoted, etc. he reacted rather strongly. I think he would prefer a place more discussion-oriented rather than direct Q&A.

Please note that this is all my interpretation of what happened. I don't mean to put words in his mouth; obviously I don't know his mind.

I was also not privy to some final conversations he had with other mods, and I believe they should be kept private anyways.

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I think the best we can do is to keep focusing on great Q&A and attract new experts. The Stack Exchange model is proven to work and create great content, even if it's not always for everyone.