[MeFi Site Update] September 14th

September 14, 2022 2:35 PM

Hi there, Metafilter! It’s great to be back! Apologies for the delay getting an update together. Now that we have a Steering Committee we will go back to the biweekly cadence we had before. You’ll find some updates regarding the site below. I’m looking forward to your feedback and questions.

- Steering Committee updates
Jessamyn and I are meeting with the Steering Committee (SC) on Friday, to go over next steps, priorities, Fundraising, Tool improvement proposals, Project Management tools we’ll use, Tech priorities and other priorities in general. We’ll report back on that next week.

- Site changes.
After completing the Steering Committee Voting page (that can be repurposed anything else that requires member voting in the future), frimble is back working through the flagging UI and fixing some known e-mail problems. This includes moving all mail messages to be delivered via Amazon e-mail services. They are also working on some fixes for the FanFare "other media" category.

- BIPOC Advisory Board
We are continuing to meet every month, so far, the Board has been providing feedback regarding the selection process for the SC Team and the 9th BIPOC Board Meeting will take place on Saturday, September 24th.
The board has recently welcomed two new members! We were able to meet last month with our new group and are getting into the flow of things; more updates to come.
Thyme is working on getting the minutes for meetings 6, 7 and 8 posted on the landing page. Stay tuned!

- Site Updates Frequency
We will now be back to biweekly updates.

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.

posted by loup (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 2:35 PM (20 comments total)

Thanks for the update, loup. Nice to have you back! As I recall, the IDs of members of the BIPOC Board are not public, which is why you have not named the two new members. Is that correct? Super excited to hear about the new members!
posted by Bella Donna at 12:32 PM on September 15, 2022 [1 favorite]

Thanks for the update, loup!

I'm especially excited about the Voting Page being generalizable for future votes. One of the initiatives I'm pushing for in the Steering Committee is more ballot initiatives and community decision making on stuff. Having a place that we can ask for MeFites to weight in is really exciting!
posted by lazaruslong at 1:49 AM on September 16, 2022 [5 favorites]

Thanks for the update!

Is it on Frimble’s roadmap to add “steering committee” tags akin to the “staff” tags for the steering committee?

I’m terrible with remembering usernames and could use the reminder of who people are (especially if, over time, we’ll see regular changes in who is on the steering committee).
posted by Suffocating Kitty at 2:31 PM on September 17, 2022 [10 favorites]

Sorry to sound like a broken record on this, but:

Has anyone discussed bringing on volunteers with experience with ColdFusion or something adjacent to assist Frimble? I know several people with some skills made themselves known in the MeTa thread leading up to the SC vote.

I understand, from a non-technical perspective, that making new people familiar with the creaky mechanisms of Metafilter's codebase may be time-consuming all by itself, but my understanding was that the site's current "bus factor" is ONE. (Maybe one-and-a-half, depending on how much cortex can do?) That is a real danger for a site looking to revamp and possibly attract new members.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:45 PM on September 18, 2022 [4 favorites]

Mod note: The IDs of members of the BIPOC Board are not public, which is why you have not named the two new members. Is that correct?

- Yes, thyme has reached out to them for permission to share their user IDs.

Is it on Frimble’s roadmap to add “steering committee” tags akin to the “staff” tags for the steering committee?

- I'm going over this with frimble this week as well as putting together a page that explains who they are and more details in the next weeks.

Has anyone discussed bringing on volunteers with experience with ColdFusion or something adjacent to assist Frimble?

- This is one of the conversations we started last week, overall the meeting was about 90 minutes long so there was a lot to cover. Overall, we went over:

– Short term goals

– SC Tool requests/needs and budget.

–Expenses & Revenue

– Our Project Management tool

– Fundraising

– Hubspot Implementation

I will provide more details as they are available and as they take shape, hence why we are back to the biweekly updates.

posted by loup (staff) at 10:59 AM on September 19, 2022 [8 favorites]

The work just never ends, does it? Thanks for your service, loup!
posted by Bella Donna at 2:51 PM on September 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Sorry to sound like a broken record on this, but:

Has anyone discussed bringing on volunteers with experience with ColdFusion or something adjacent to assist Frimble? I know several people with some skills made themselves known in the MeTa thread leading up to the SC vote.

I understand, from a non-technical perspective, that making new people familiar with the creaky mechanisms of Metafilter's codebase may be time-consuming all by itself, but my understanding was that the site's current "bus factor" is ONE. (Maybe one-and-a-half, depending on how much cortex can do?) That is a real danger for a site looking to revamp and possibly attract new members.

SC is definitely aware of this. We're in the very early stages still but this is high priority. Will share more when we can.
posted by lazaruslong at 7:01 AM on September 20, 2022 [7 favorites]

Is there a place where we can see a list of the current, active mods? Thanks!
posted by JenMarie at 6:18 AM on September 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Check the FAQ!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:03 AM on September 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

“ Metafilter is run by a small staff of paid moderators ("mods"). The moderators are: taz, goodnewsfortheinsane, Eyebrows McGee, travelingthyme and loup; coder frimble. ”
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:03 AM on September 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

I thought Eyebrows had retired from full-time modding?
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:51 AM on September 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Nah, in the announcement of her getting another job, she did mention that she still mods on the weekends and occasionally steps in to help cover for someone else.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:58 AM on September 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Out of curiosity and totally without complaint, does Jessamyn have mod access?
posted by one4themoment at 6:15 PM on September 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Out of curiosity and totally without complaint, does Jessamyn have mod access?

It appears, yes.
posted by terrapin at 6:42 PM on September 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Yep, I have mod access but unless something seems like it absolutely won't wait for a mod to see it (we have a few coverage gaps built into the schedule) I am not doing any modding or modding oversight. I think technically cortex may also. Steering Committee and Transition Team members do not have mod access.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:00 AM on September 22, 2022 [4 favorites]

Yeah, I don't think jessamyn ever actually lost mod access back in the day. I continue to have mod access as well but I don't expect to be using it for anything other than helping look at/answer the rare question from someone actively on staff.
posted by cortex (retired) at 10:53 AM on September 22, 2022 [3 favorites]

Transition Team members

It's probably obvious, but I just want to make it clear that there is no longer a Transition Team. We were officially disbanded as of August 31st.

No idea what the other former members of the TT are doing, but I personally am sipping mimosas and sangria in the backyard and will not be taking any questions regarding the state of our former breakroom.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:25 PM on September 22, 2022 [8 favorites]

What about Aperol spritzes? Is there any way to know if any former Transition Team members are drinking Aperol spritzes in their backyards?
posted by snofoam at 5:46 PM on September 22, 2022 [2 favorites]

I personally have added Aperol spritzes to the backyard list.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:38 PM on September 22, 2022 [4 favorites]

Thank you, loup!
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 8:15 AM on September 24, 2022 [1 favorite]