TL DR:

The input from meta carries far less sway than it used to. The Stack Overflow Company (I'll refer to as the network) is making the decisions on site changes. We need to adapt to our new limited influence.

OR should I stay or should I go?

So this is less of a discussion, more of a heads up, a pointer to a good chat room and of course another opportunity for people to raise concerns, given this new information.

Background

The active meta community has been very concerned about not being heard. There's been a lack of coordinated communication from the Network about where we stand as a community and what to expect.

I'm hoping to shed some light on this.

I have been lobbying hard for change on the site for - years really, as have many of the active meta users. Why haven't these changes been made? Why are we feeling disenfranchised?

Because the Network has changed how they're doing things. Our site has changed. The meta community has lower stakes in it that we previously had. The thing most of us feared is actually true.

It appears we are a minority and an incredibly small one at that:

there are Millions of users on Stack Overflow whose needs aren't being met because in the past we've spent so much time on Meta which has .015% of Stack Overflow's active users and is not representative of the community as a whole.

In fact this whole chat room, that was created from comments under a meta answer has proven to be valuable for airing community concerns. It doesn't feel rife with the conflict people often complain about within meta comments and perhaps, some of us, are reaching a point of knowledge (facts of what's going on) and acceptance. I'm linking it here for people to go to. In fact it's almost that we've needed this kind of outlet for some time.

What I have found out.

Our meta community no longer makes decisions about the site

The network does. No one person is to blame. It's the facts of the nature of the site changing with growth and becoming an ongoing business concern. The powers that be have taken the Q&A site into hand and are making decisions without us on meta.

This is not necessarily bad, as they're taking feedback from other users who do not participate on meta.

In many ways this is a relief for me. I've been pushing against the system for change and now I realise this is out of my hands. So I know where I stand.

Although it comes as a shock, it's been softened by the fact that we all could see it coming. The main criticism I have of the network over this, is not letting us know. I don't believe this is from any malevolence, it's more from the company reforming, restructuring and finally the Q&A is being given resources. To be fair, I cannot blame the employees for being forced to take directives from their bosses, based on internal company decisions, by people we have never heard of.

It's been a sticky situation and, by the sounds of it, a discoordinated mess.

The positive thing to come out of this. There's some more people working on the Q&A and they are actually pushing changes onto the site. Some that the regular users cannot see, but they are moving towards further change.

What does this mean for us?

Does this mean meta is dead? I hope not. Meta is changing, that's for sure.

It does mean one thing. There's no point in repeatedly lobbying over and over on the same issues. They're been noted and heard and now we need to wait and see what will happen.

I don't know exactly where our site is heading. One thing I do know, it's the keystone to the entire network's success and it is for that reason I feel confident that it will be ok. The network has a vested interest in keeping this site going and striving to maintain quality content. It needs to be set apart from "forums" and needs to put into place the UI and tools to achieve this. This is no easy ask. But you know what? It's no longer my problem. I can take a deep breath and allow the people who work for the organisation to work out how to solve the issues on the site. And that is what they are doing.

We know that the vast majority of meta users are not happy with this (I wasn't), but it's something we have no control or choice over. So for me it was a matter of asking myself, "can I live with that?" Yes, I can. It's an individual choice.

How can we adapt to this as a meta community?

Please feel free to raise concerns, bearing in mind this is how it is now.

Note: by network I mean the Stack Overflow company