@Stephen I'm marked as a noob on sites, despite multiple years on SE, and I hate being marked as a noob in general - so its even worse when I'm not one at all.

The site has a culture that was created by the users that actually use the site. What SO mgmt should be doing is striving to understand that culture deeply, and then help newcomers assimilate into it. Things work smoothly between people when everyone has the same frame of reference for their values. That SO is trying to enforce a bad change that goes against an established culture (10+ years now?) is not good. That's a dictatorial approach to things; far from "community-driven".

Also, moving the comments to chat in controversial situations can come across in the wrong way... it gives the impression that SO is trying to hide the backlash it brought upon itself.. there's already a way to choose to show or hide comments; let users use it.