About

This site is for meta-discussion of the Stack Exchange family of Q&A websites.

What the heck is meta-discussion?

Let’s ask our friends at Wikipedia:

Meta-discussion means discussion of the discussion itself instead of the actual topic of the discussion. For example:

• the style of a discussion
• its participants
• the setting in which the discussion occurs
• the relationship of the discussion to other discussions on the same or different topics.

The etymology for the “meta-” prefix dates back to Aristotle’s Metaphysics, which came after his works on physics. The fundamental meaning of the prefix in Greek is simply “after.”

Why do we need this site?

The FAQ on all sites explicitly disallows meta-discussion, to reduce clutter and noise.

Also, try to refrain from asking questions about this website itself unless you absolutely, positively have to. People don’t come here to learn about the intricacies of this website; they come here to get answers to their questions. Let’s try to help them out by not cluttering up the system with navelgazing meta-discussion. If you want to suggest a feature or discuss how the website works, visit our meta site.

This frustrated many members of the community who had perfectly legitimate reasons to ask questions about how and why the websites worked the way they do. We needed to provide an outlet for this activity, a separate place where community members could go for sanctioned meta-discussion. And here it is!

How do I use this site?

• Ask questions about how the websites work.
• Ask questions of the community.
• Post bugs.
• Suggest improvements.
• Propose new features.

Lots of topics are fair game, as long as they are about the Stack Exchange family of Q&A websites in some way.

Who are the moderators?

Any community moderator from Stack Overflow is also a moderator here.

We believe moderation starts with the community itself, so in addition to privileges earned through reputation, we periodically hold democratic moderator elections. If the site is not yet large enough to support an election, we will appoint likely moderators from within the community.

The following users are our current community moderators:

                                       

Please see A Theory of Moderation for information on our moderation philosophy.

How can I learn more?

Check out the Help Center. And feel free to contact us about any issues with our sites.