[MeFi Site Update] Apr 26th

April 26, 2021 11:41 AM

Hello Metafilter! Here’s another update on the state of the site and the things the team has been working on. As in the previous thread, comments will be turned on and I will be the only mod monitoring this thread so please be patient if it takes some time for me to reply.

Quick reminder: If you have any questions or feedback not related to this particular update, please Contact Us instead. If you want to discuss a particular subject not covered here with the community, you’re welcome to open a separate MetaTalk thread for it.

General
Things that happened since the last update:

- The new mod note style is live on parts of the site and we're wrapping in user feedback on it. We've fixed some related bugs thanks to user reports. We'll roll the new mod note style out to the rest of the site soon.

- Privacy Policy - Still Work in Progress

- Under the hood updates to page rendering: threads should load a little faster on the Modern theme now, and the old font-flickering issue on page load should be more or less gone now. Let us know if you see other issues.

- frimble has been reworking how we use external APIs in FanFare to get data about TV shows and movies so that FanFare search and posting will work more consistently in the future.

- frimble is also reworking map and geolocation stuff on the site, for things like IRL posts and uer locations, with a new library after the older google maps API was retired.

- The third BIPOC Advisory board meeting is still scheduled for Tuesday, April 27th at 11 AM (PST).

We’ll continue posting these updates every other Monday, so the next update post will be May 10.

posted by loup (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 11:41 AM (14 comments total)

If you want to discuss a particular subject not covered here with the community, you’re welcome to open a separate MetaTalk thread for it.

Shouldn't this read something more like "you're welcome to submit a separate MetaTalk thread to the queue for approval by moderation" ?
posted by carsonb at 6:11 AM on April 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

Part of the effort put in these site updates is to invite all Mefites to communicate openly with the team.
We ask that you submit a separate MetaTalk thread for anything not being discussed in this thread just to track feedback more effectively.

A lot of my effort in the next weeks will be to collect as much feedback as possible and make sure our team can review it and act upon it. MetaTalks are rarely not approved and, and when that is the case it is for specific circumstances so I would encourage you to go ahead and submit one if you think it is necessary.
posted by loup (staff) at 10:13 AM on April 27, 2021

A lot of my effort in the next weeks will be to collect as much feedback as possible and make sure our team can review it and act upon it

Thanks. Will this include the feedback from previous major threads?
posted by trig at 3:15 PM on April 27, 2021 [4 favorites]

I feel like this format has the potential to be a constructive middle ground between no comments and free-for-all. But I do find the format a little confusing. It seems to be a mix of things that were completed ("Under the hood updates to page rendering"), things that are being actively worked on ("frimble is also reworking map and geolocation stuff on the site"), and things that I guess are on the list, but there is no information about developments since the last update ("Privacy Policy - Still Work in Progress"). It also omits what feels like many things that were featured in previous updates or proposed for consideration. I feel like there must be other stuff going on. I don't think management is obligated to disclose all of it. But it does seem like these site updates have gone from a more general update on what is going on to a list of bug fixes and small technical changes. I feel like the site updates were intended to satisfy a desire that many users had, but I don't think that desire was necessarily for a changelog of code updates. I think it could be useful to make an explicit communication about what these updates are meant to be. Thanks!
posted by snofoam at 5:24 AM on April 28, 2021 [3 favorites]

While I'm happy that these updates are happening, and it sounds like good progress is being made on a lot of improvements in a range of different areas, I still want to see a substantial response to the things that were brought up in the comments to February's State of the Site MetaTalk post.
posted by box at 9:04 AM on April 28, 2021 [6 favorites]

I also appreciate these updates and having the option to post a comment - thank you for taking these threads on, loup. And like the commenters above, I would also like to see responses to the things that were asked in the February thread. Towards the end of that thread, box even wrote a recap of (many/most) of the questions raised. I realize they're not all easily answerable right away, but I would hope that some are (e.g., "can we have more information about recommendations from the anti-oppression and social justice consultant and how policies have been changed in response to them?").

Is this something we could get a response to if we opened a separate MetaTalk? Is it something that can be addressed here? Or something else?
posted by DingoMutt at 9:33 AM on April 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

I like the new mod format a lot. It immediately shows that a moderator is making the statement, which is all I want.

Over the past few years, I had noticed with increasing frequency and increasing irritation a number of users making statements with small text and brackets, which to me read as dishonest mod impersonation.

I recognize that may not have been their intent, and this was my interpretation, but this new system makes it totally clear that a moderator is making the statement, and does not allow a non-moderator to typographically imitate the format. Good job!
posted by seasparrow at 11:18 AM on April 28, 2021 [2 favorites]

"there is no information about developments since the last update ("Privacy Policy - Still Work in Progress")"

The update on that is I had to be hospitalized for a few days after an injury, so there is no further progress to report, as I didn't have access to a computer and wasn't in a condition to do any work anyway. Sorry about that.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 11:30 AM on April 28, 2021

Hi there!

Thank you for all the feedback. It is truly useful! Let me share some of my thoughts around them so far:

- Tracking and reporting on Previous feedback: Yes, I know this is probably the biggest thing on everyone's mind right now. The short answer is we will do it. The long answer is, it may take a few weeks since I want to work on how and where it will be tracked, triaged, and how we will report back. As I mentioned in the previous update, I don't want to over promise anything about how this will look like so, please be patient with me on that.

- Reporting back on the anti-oppression consultant: Adding this to my to-do list. Please bear with me.

- The overall format of the Site Updates: thank you for the super useful feedback. I don't think these updates should turn into a changelog and will do my best to flesh out as much as I can and come up with a better format each week.

- Some random thoughts: There are some things that are particularly hard to report (copywriting and legal doc like the Privacy Policy come to my mind) not because progress it not being made but because the process itself involves a lot of revisions and it is hard to break it down in meaningful milestones. I'll do my best to keep including these with some degree of granularity, but please understand that this is not always feasible.
posted by loup (staff) at 12:31 PM on April 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

I hope the third BIPOC Advisory Board meeting was beneficial and constructive.

I'm wondering if staff can share how many future BAB meetings are fully paid for with dedicated funds at this time, assuming current participation numbers.
posted by Chrysopoeia at 1:57 PM on April 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Just curious whether you’re considering using platforms such as Gitlab for tracking everything? It’s made for exactly this and works amazingly well, from content updates to code and community comments too.
posted by iamkimiam at 12:41 AM on April 29, 2021

ProdPad is another one I’ve quite liked, just throwing that out there.
posted by iamkimiam at 12:43 AM on April 29, 2021

The update on that is I had to be hospitalized for a few days after an injury, so there is no further progress to report, as I didn't have access to a computer and wasn't in a condition to do any work anyway. Sorry about that.

I am really sorry to hear about that and I hope you are doing better. In case my comment wasn’t clear, I wasn’t asking for a status update on that item. I was just trying to get a better understanding of what the list was supposed to be, because it was confusing to me. Like, if things are included in the update that don’t have an update, does that mean anything not included is no longer planned at all?

To me, your comment came across as possibly snide in tone. If that was unintentional, perhaps it would be useful to know.
posted by snofoam at 5:18 AM on April 30, 2021 [2 favorites]

sympathy and compassion isn't exactly your thing, is it, snofoam?
posted by pyramid termite at 6:09 PM on April 30, 2021 [1 favorite]