[MeFi Site Update] April 27th April 27, 2022 2:19 PM Subscribe
Hi there, Metafilter!
Please find more details on the state of the site below. Reminder: I will be the only mod actively monitoring this thread so please be patient as I reply to your feedback and questions.
- Staff Changes
Most internal tools have been transferred to myself and frimble. I have been meeting with each one of the staff members to go over schedules, priorities and budget. Starting next week, we’ll have a new moderation schedule that ensures site coverage but also decreases the budget spent on payroll a bit.
In the next couple of weeks I will be focusing on tech prioritization with frimble and assessing our current revenue, budget and spend. I’ll report back any major changes or learnings.
- Transition Team
You can read about the latest updates from the Team directly here.
- Signup flow, Marketing efforts, Flagging (UX) Changes.
On hold for now. We’ll resume after the changes above are completed.
- BIPOC Advisory Board
Next Board meeting scheduled for Saturday, April 30th. Minutes and updates will be posted after that.
- Technical Changes
Frimble has been working on changing the notifications we get so that we’re able to action each report faster during unscheduled hours.
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.
- Staff Changes
Most internal tools have been transferred to myself and frimble. I have been meeting with each one of the staff members to go over schedules, priorities and budget. Starting next week, we’ll have a new moderation schedule that ensures site coverage but also decreases the budget spent on payroll a bit.
In the next couple of weeks I will be focusing on tech prioritization with frimble and assessing our current revenue, budget and spend. I’ll report back any major changes or learnings.
- Transition Team
You can read about the latest updates from the Team directly here.
- Signup flow, Marketing efforts, Flagging (UX) Changes.
On hold for now. We’ll resume after the changes above are completed.
- BIPOC Advisory Board
Next Board meeting scheduled for Saturday, April 30th. Minutes and updates will be posted after that.
- Technical Changes
Frimble has been working on changing the notifications we get so that we’re able to action each report faster during unscheduled hours.
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.
Mod note: I'm also aiming to have a way better grasp of where we are at as we speak, that way I'll be able to give better updates and prioritize our efforts. Of course, I wouldn't be able to do any of that without the mentorship from cortex, the huge support from the mod team, the dedication from frimble, the contribution from the Transition Team, and the feedback and help from the community.
posted by loup (staff) at 8:48 PM on April 27, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by loup (staff) at 8:48 PM on April 27, 2022 [8 favorites]
I'm seeing frimble's name pop up a lot in this thread and in the earlier one on the transition team, and I know how busy they must be, so just to copy-and-paste something I wrote back in February 2021:
Frimble is quite clearly a genius, and nothing I’m going to say elsewhere in this post should be interpreted against them, but one consistent theme over the past five (or more?) years has been that “X feature can only be added once frimble is ready” or “frimble has to prioritize site maintenance over X feature”. Hearing this over and over again leads me to some conclusions[...]
The best time to have trained a second person to do Coldfusion work and dive deep into Metafilter's code was years ago, but it never happened. Now the site can’t truly prioritize anything because all the work has to be filtered through one part-timer’s [Ed. I meant frimble, although they may in fact be full-time now] availability, but at the same time they [Ed. here more generally meaning site mods, cortex, etc.] can’t admit that anything is not a priority either. The end result is that improvements that users consider to be absolute must-haves — the deletion ability for posts and histories, pronoun specifications, revamping the flag function, slur filters, moderation logs — get dragged on and on until users have to say “I will leave the site unless this feature exists.” Continuing to say “frimble will get to it eventually” is for all practical purposes a lie. Someone else has to be trained to do the work, to fill in the gaps.
So to re-ask: Is anyone else being trained to support frimble on the technical end? Are you willing to solicit volunteer help for this?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:43 AM on April 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
Frimble is quite clearly a genius, and nothing I’m going to say elsewhere in this post should be interpreted against them, but one consistent theme over the past five (or more?) years has been that “X feature can only be added once frimble is ready” or “frimble has to prioritize site maintenance over X feature”. Hearing this over and over again leads me to some conclusions[...]
The best time to have trained a second person to do Coldfusion work and dive deep into Metafilter's code was years ago, but it never happened. Now the site can’t truly prioritize anything because all the work has to be filtered through one part-timer’s [Ed. I meant frimble, although they may in fact be full-time now] availability, but at the same time they [Ed. here more generally meaning site mods, cortex, etc.] can’t admit that anything is not a priority either. The end result is that improvements that users consider to be absolute must-haves — the deletion ability for posts and histories, pronoun specifications, revamping the flag function, slur filters, moderation logs — get dragged on and on until users have to say “I will leave the site unless this feature exists.” Continuing to say “frimble will get to it eventually” is for all practical purposes a lie. Someone else has to be trained to do the work, to fill in the gaps.
So to re-ask: Is anyone else being trained to support frimble on the technical end? Are you willing to solicit volunteer help for this?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:43 AM on April 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
Mod note: Is anyone else being trained to support frimble on the technical end? Are you willing to solicit volunteer help for this?
The short answers are no and yes. The long answer is: this is something that needs to be tackled once I have a better sense of where we are at in terms of tech prioritization, current revenue, and budget. I had my first meeting with frimble yesterday and we'll be meeting once a week to go over this.
posted by loup (staff) at 11:26 AM on April 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
The short answers are no and yes. The long answer is: this is something that needs to be tackled once I have a better sense of where we are at in terms of tech prioritization, current revenue, and budget. I had my first meeting with frimble yesterday and we'll be meeting once a week to go over this.
posted by loup (staff) at 11:26 AM on April 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
Thanks, loup, for the update and for all the work. It's reassuring knowing you've got the helm, and a good team at your back to keep the ship afloat and start charting the next course for Metafilter.
posted by biogeo at 11:42 AM on April 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 11:42 AM on April 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Is there any update on the meeting notes for March that were mentioned in the last update?
posted by gregjones at 1:50 PM on April 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by gregjones at 1:50 PM on April 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Mod note: Re: March Meeting Minute.
Thyme is waiting for feedback/approval from the Board Members. We'll go over this tomorrow with them.
posted by loup (staff) at 12:18 PM on April 29, 2022
Thyme is waiting for feedback/approval from the Board Members. We'll go over this tomorrow with them.
posted by loup (staff) at 12:18 PM on April 29, 2022
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The change to notifications sounds like a big help. Thanks, frimble!
Change is really hard, but it sounds to me like everyone is doing a great job. Thank you for everything you all are doing!
posted by kristi at 2:31 PM on April 27, 2022 [3 favorites]