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For any Stack Exchange community the meta site is important. This is currently not reflected by the newsletter since it does not include any meta posts. Therefore I would like to suggest that in any newsletter some posts from the respective site's meta site are included.

A strong reason for having some meta posts in the newsletter is to get people involved in meta. I am not sure exactly how meta posts are to be selected for the newsletter. One way to implement it would be to include two to four active meta posts since the last newsletter. The meta posts would be listed under its own heading as the last heading in the newsletter:

Active meta questions this week:

[Questions included just like under any other heading.]

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6  
This is a great idea, would like to see it implemented any time soon. –  Bruno Pereira Feb 8 '12 at 10:31
2  
Implementations should be aware of lower traffic Metas with very few active topics and e.g. add the featured topics instead of a repeat of other topics. –  Daniel Beck Feb 8 '12 at 11:23
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In case N.N's suggestion is not be implemented, maybe creating separate newsletters for metas could be useful...? (So that people who are interested in meta could subscribe.) –  Martin Jun 28 '12 at 4:49

1 Answer 1

I'm not sure I agree. I suspect that the majority of people who are involved in a site just want to ask and/or answer questions. If they're interested in how the site works they're already viewing the meta, active in chat, or whatever.

I think all of us who are active in meta are in a minority who are interested in how the sites are run, but for the majority I describe above, meta posts are boring and irrelevant. You might well argue that they shouldn't feel that way, but if they're not interested then trying to force it upon them won't help.

It might be worth including featured questions from the appropriate site meta, of course, as a way of involving people in important issues. But how often would a "meta question of the week" be yet more arguing about how this month's version of the great "flag weight argument du jour" works? That seems more likely to drive people away than draw them in.

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People who are honestly not interested in meta will not be that bothered if the meta posts are listed last in the newsletter (as I suggested). Also, having some meta posts in the newsletter might serve to make people more interested in meta. The chance of getting interested in something might be greater if you see some examples of content. –  N.N. Feb 8 '12 at 11:36
    
The selection mechanism has indeed to be constructed so that it selects appropriate posts. The implementation I describe is just a simple example. –  N.N. Feb 8 '12 at 11:39
    
"People who are honestly not interested in meta will not be that bothered if the meta posts are listed last in the newsletter (as I suggested). " - I've always thought the newsletters were supposed to showcase the good things about a site to attract people back to the site. Almost by definition that excludes the meta, I'd have thought. People who just want to use the site on a casual basis and who need to be reminded to come back via the newsletter probably won't be interested in meta; they just want to ask or answer the odd question. –  RobM Feb 8 '12 at 11:45
    
Singling out inclusion of meta posts on account of the selection mechanism might be an overly negative perspective on the issue. After all the selection mechanism for "top questions" and "greatest hits from previous weeks" (which are currently in the newsletters) neither always select the most appropriate or interesting posts. –  N.N. Feb 8 '12 at 11:46
    
I think you might be falling into the trap of thinking that others will be interested in meta because you are interested in meta. Those of us who spend time on the metas trying to improve the sites (other than popping in to complain that their favourite question got closed) are in a minority compared to people who just want to get on with using the main site to fix their problems. –  RobM Feb 8 '12 at 11:48
1  
I do not think that people interested in meta will ever be close to the people using the main sites. However I do think some people using the main sites may become interested in meta and including it in the newsletter might be a way of getting into meta for those people. –  N.N. Feb 8 '12 at 11:55
    
I understand that's what you think. I just don't agree. –  RobM Feb 8 '12 at 11:57

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