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This question is intended to collect opinions from people who frequent multiple Stack Exchange sites, including Computer Science, and who are not regulars of Stack Overflow.

Each Stack Exchange site has a meta site (like the one you're reading now), intended for discussions, support questions, bug reports and feature requests about the site. In addition, there is a “main meta”, which is intended for discussions, support questions, bug reports and feature requests about the Stack Exchange network in general.

The ”main meta“ is currently Meta Stack Overflow, which doubles as the meta site for Stack Overflow, the original and largest Stack Exchange site, whose topic is programming.

Any time now, Meta Stack Overflow is going to be split into Meta Stack Overflow, the meta site for Stack Overflow, and a new Meta Stack Exchange, the meta site for network-wide issues.

Did you know about Meta Stack Overflow? Have you ever used it? What do you think of it? What do you think of the split?

Please reply to this informal poll by upvoting the answer that best matches your opinion. If one of the answers almost but not exactly echoes your thoughts, please add or upvote a comment. If none of the answers express your opinion, please write an answer to tell us what you think.

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  • $\begingroup$ some reaction in comments here... maybe someone will see em before they are likely deleted by mods as "unconstructive" $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Commented Mar 14, 2014 at 17:43
  • $\begingroup$ I can't help but notice that the pre-filled in answers are: MSO sucks, kinda sucks, really sucks, and "what's MSO?" The write in answer is "Meta doesn't work". I wish I'd seen this earlier so that my answer could get some votes: "At least it's not UserVoice." ;-) $\endgroup$
    – Jon Ericson StaffMod
    Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 4:49
  • $\begingroup$ @JonEricson The “MSO is fine” answer did get 4 upvotes. $\endgroup$
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Mod
    Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 9:27

5 Answers 5

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I've sometimes tried to find stuff on Meta Stack Overflow, but there's too much content that's irrelevant to me. Splitting the sites will be good, as the new site will largely have only content that's relevant to everyone.

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I tried participating on Meta Stack Overflow and got downvoted into oblivion. I'm not going back there. I hope Meta Stack Exchange will be different.

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    $\begingroup$ Whether or not it expresses itself in downvotes, it is true that the views of Stack Overflow users predominate. It is hard to argue for anything particular to smaller sites; if it's not useful for SOFU, it's not a valid proposal. $\endgroup$
    – Raphael Mod
    Commented Feb 4, 2014 at 13:18
  • $\begingroup$ downvoted or deleted... re "smaller sites" the se software was built mainly for large sites (a point reiterated by shog9 in this meta) & some features may not scale well to small sites. personally am in favor of some kind of "se lite" type idea where smaller/niche sites may be better supported. maybe the se mgt will be more open to this idea after launching new "large" sites from area51 seems increasingly rare. how many other sites are stuck long in "indefinite beta limbo" attracting a niche but dedicated audience that doesnt continue to expand rapidly? $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Commented Feb 11, 2014 at 2:47
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The SE platform is not a good fit for Meta SE.

Nearly every feature has been proposed before (but these posts can be hard to find) and repostings are usually immediately closed as duplicate. The fact that situations, requirements and policies change (in particular from the Time Before SE 2.0 to now) is often ignored.

Also, SE prouds itself by disabling discussions as much as possible. That's not appropriate for Meta at all.

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  • $\begingroup$ Using the same UI (including title text for voting buttons!) may encourage cultural carry-over from non-Meta, but experienced users know Meta is different. A more forum-like interface would probably help with discussion (beyond cultural disentanglement). (support and bug posts are more like main site--not discussion/opinion--but may slip into feature-request which usually involves polling and discussion.) Perhaps a further separation into policy/culture and interface might be justified (or support [and bugs] and discussion/suggestion)? $\endgroup$
    – user4577
    Commented Feb 7, 2014 at 21:26
  • $\begingroup$ @PaulA.Clayton: My main problem is voting: "I disagree" is expressed by downvoting, which makes completely valid posts next to invisible. (And it does not take many disagreeing people to hide a post from others.) That is, if there are no adaptions to meta.SE which I'm not aware of. $\endgroup$
    – Raphael Mod
    Commented Feb 7, 2014 at 22:29
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I look at Meta Stack Overflow sometimes. I just ignore the content that's specific to Stack Overflow, it's no big deal.

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  • $\begingroup$ sometimes major software features/chgs in stackexchange software across sites are documented on MSO posts! it is very useful for understanding "stackexchange/stackoverflow culture" but it is defn currently mixed up between posts that are about the network in general vs those that are about stackoverflow in particular. the new split should help that but, heard from you there will be no effort to disentangle/separate those two types of posts for the two new forums, which will initially be "bad".... but, the new classification will be helpful longterm. $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Commented Feb 4, 2014 at 20:06
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I didn't even know that Meta Stack Overflow wasn't just the meta site of Stack Overflow.

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