Let me begin by saying that the last days were really interesting. Especially as lead developer. This is something that I always enjoyed. I know there are good times and bad times, but overall I'm proud to be part of this community and enjoy doing what I do here.

This comment has been written, and re-written several times now. But at some point I thought there are points that can very well stand by themselves. Not really points by me, but by /u/coblee who has said a lot of enlightening things in the last days. Things that show to me, that the intentions behind the recent stirrup of the merged mining discussion are not what they seemingly are. I'm especially pointing here to the publicity this already brought up.

Let's look at this article: Litecoin's Five Ways to Make a Successful Altcoin
A lot of good points actually in what he said. Now take a look at the second, and especially at the third part, which I think is the most interesting here.

Now remember this, or read it if you haven't: Litecoin's silver anology

A few days ago, Charlie spoke and mentioned that he saw Dogecoin as a third to the top three coins. Bitcoin the gold standard, Litecoin the silver standard and Dogecoin with the ability to be the bronze standard.

I think we can agree that the points there conflict more than just a bit, no? Especially given his statement about mining:

"“There can only be one cryptocurrency in the same mining platform,” he said." - Charlie Lee ^{Number 3 in the first article.}

Yeah, this is bit too much of Highlander... We have always been open to other cryptocurrencies, and with pride so. Especially given that he has come here over the past two days shaking his fists in the air screaming that he has the answer to save us all, then in effect goes and tells the general public that there can be only one as he suggests we merge mine with Litecoin.

Everything here you guys, the community across the internet have helped to build up into something not even /u/BillyM2k or /u/ummjackson could have thought possible. You took something made to be a joke, and made it work against all, any, even expected odds.

I know, no, we know that something is not right with Dogecoin. It was birthed with an expiration date. One which the core devteam, the expanded devteam and you the community have been brainstorming over how to push off a bit longer. We have been active, open and researching about even the most obscure options. This said, the issue with Dogecoin is not the social political valuation market problem that some of the people who are stepping up to speak about would claim it to be. It is a very technical problem, one which does not and has not had a simple nor easy answer. The devteam and myself take this responsibility very seriously with countless hours into things, multiple public discussions and very interesting debates. We are striving to find the most stable and secure options for our future, even now multiple options are floating in the air being discussed.

We understand your concerns, we respect you and what you have to say. We ask you now to trust us as you have thus far to try not only to not rush into anything but to continue to make Dogecoin as it has been, one of the most stable and secure digital currencies.

TLDR: Such technical, many patience, much cautions

EDIT: Thanks for gold!