What is "meta"? How does it work?
Meta Stack Overflow is the part of the site where users discuss the workings and policies of Stack Overflow rather than discussing programming itself. It is separated from the main Q&A; to reduce noise there while providing a legitimate space for people to ask how and why this site works the way it does. Meta is for:
- asking questions about how the websites work
- asking questions of the community
- posting bugs
- suggesting improvements
- proposing new features
Please look around to see if your question has been asked before, and avoid asking questions that have nothing to do with Stack Overflow or the Stack Exchange network. This is not a random discussion area; rather, it's a place for improving our community and website, together.
Voting is different on meta.
Votes on meta are generally used to express agreement or disagreement with a particular idea, rather than indicating the quality of research or factual correctness of a post. The highest voted answer is typically the one the community at large supports. Highly-voted and frequently-linked posts may become part of the community-curated FAQ or codified as part of the site’s Help pages. Please don't be concerned if you receive downvotes – members of the community may simply disagree with your bug, feature request, support issue, or the nature of the discussion.
If you have an account on Stack Overflow, you have an account on its meta site.
You do not need to create a separate account for meta; once you are logged in on Stack Overflow, you are also logged in and may post on its meta site.
Votes on meta do not affect your reputation; your meta reputation is the same as your reputation on Stack Overflow (synchronized hourly), though you earn separate badges. You must have 5 reputation to participate on meta.
