"...Yahoo! has recently laid off about 600 employees based on a ranking system introduced last year..."

No. Yahoo has laid off people because the business cannot support that number of employees. Stack ranking is just the tool used to make the decision.

The problem for any good-sized business is this: in difficult times, how do we make the decision who to lay off? People want to go on the warpath about stack-ranking, and that's great, but it doesn't address the problem.

So a story about why Yahoo is downsizing would be interesting. A story about stack-ranking alternatives would be interesting. One mixing up the two concepts in order just to keep some bullshit narrative alive about stack-ranking? Just to get some reaction? Not so much.

I'm still waiting to hear what Microsoft has come up with to replace stack-ranking, because there has to be some kind of plan. Instead, we seem to be on a merry old witch hunt after any companies who dare to use the phrase "stack ranking" in their employee evaluation policy manual. The greater discussion is not advancing too well.