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Abstract

There's no need to have two flag queues (one for meta, and one for main) for moderators to check. There's also no need to have two edit queues, if suggested edits were allowed on meta sites. We should have one flag queue and one edit queue for both main and meta SE 2.0 sites.

Background

Most of these sites have a low traffic level and low participation. How low traffic are they? Moderators get pinged in their global inbox for questions on Meta sites because we're desperately trying to make sure that any traffic is successful. Our meta traffic is picking up rapidly, but it's nowhere near the point that it's sensible to check meta's flag queue.

The Problem

The flag and edit queues are currently separate on the meta and main sites. This reduces the flag handling time, and is yet another queue for mods to check. The undesirability of a separate edit queue is used to justify the lack of suggested edits on meta sites.

The Solution

The flag queue on meta should be integrated with the main site flag queue. Additionally, suggested edits should be implemented on meta, and this queue integrated with that of the main site.

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3
  • 1
    Note: SO and MSO do not apply here.
    – Kevin Vermeer
    Commented Oct 20, 2011 at 16:10
  • 2
    I think you meant that it increases the flag handling time?
    – Cascabel
    Commented Nov 7, 2013 at 1:58
  • How often do you visit your meta(s)? While you can rely on the notifications to tell you about new questions, they won't tell you about other changes like new answers (or, currently, flags). If you're visiting meta regularly I don't understand the need; if you're not visiting meta regularly, maybe there are reasons beyond flags to do so?
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented Mar 13, 2014 at 15:29

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
21

Implemented.

In the mod dashboard (flags queue), if on main site and the meta has flags, the number of flags will be shown and the meta flag queue is linked. With a meta site, the reverse happens.

With you in the next build.

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13
  • Is the total supposed to show both flag counts combined? On Workplace right now we have one on both main/meta and the total count is only 1 (but the toggle works in the mod menu).
    – enderland
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 15:14
  • @enderland - meta would show the # of flags on main, main would show the # of flags on meta.
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 15:15
  • 1
    So not a combined count? Will this show zero flags on main if for example main is 0 and meta is 5? Or vice versa?
    – enderland
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 15:17
  • @enderland - right, it isn't combined. If there are no flags on main, there will be no link - that section won't show up.
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 15:24
  • To clarify - only the flag-related part of this feature-request is being implemented, and not the suggested-edit-related part?
    – Air
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 16:01
  • 2
    @Air - that's correct (see details on the answer from bluefeet)
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 16:04
  • 1
    When does this go live? (so that I know how long I need to keep refreshing meta as well as main to check for new flags)
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 17:42
  • @randal'thor It's live now, at least on SO.
    – Undo
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 17:44
  • @rand - it is live now.
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 18:07
  • 3
    @enderland it took me a while to find this. It's on the flags page over in the right column -- "N meta flags" on main.
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 18:34
  • 5
    So the indicator is only on a specific page, and it's off-screen to boot (with a browser window size that allows me to fit two windows side by side)? That isn't very useful. Why not combine the flag indicators like the request asked for?
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 23:23
  • 2
    @Oded Ah, I missed it before since I was assuming the blue number in the top bar would reflect both main and meta flag counts (or there'd be two numbers up there). Got to agree with Gilles here - would it be possible to amend it so that the total flag count (main plus meta) is visible on any page and we don't have to keep refreshing two pages, one on main and one on meta, in order to spot new flags?
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 23:39
  • Related: In the flag queue, make it more obvious when there are flags on the per-site-meta
    – V2Blast Staff
    Commented May 4, 2023 at 1:07
13

While we didn't have a single flag on meta.crypto in all time¹, according to our moderator tools (though I think I did flag something before becoming moderator), I think this is a good idea.

Not being able to edit on metas where I don't have the required reputation (and where I'm not moderator) already did hinder me some times.

Suggesting edits on meta pages should not give any reputation, of course.

¹This has changed since I originally answered the question: now (march 2014) we collected 11 flags in total.

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  • 5
    Indeed, the low flag volume on meta is exactly why the queues should be merged. Moderators are very unlikely to even see flags on meta because they're not used to looking for them.
    – Cascabel
    Commented Nov 7, 2013 at 1:57
11
+50

I agree and disagree with parts of this request. First off, I don't agree with mixing the suggested edit queues - on large sites like Stack Overflow it'd be incredibly confusing to users when they get a MSO suggested edit, so I'm going to that portion of this request.

But when it comes to the flags, since those are only seen by moderators I agree that it would be helpful to provide a link with a count of the number of flags in the flag dashboard on the main site (suggested by ChrisF). That being said, I'm not a dev so I'm not sure how much work would be involved to do this on both the main and meta sites, so I'll this and write it up internally to see if we can get it implemented.

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5
  • 1
    Good points, we definitely don't want the average main-site reviewer seeing Meta edits.
    – user154510
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 22:00
  • 2
    I suggested the latter option here - meta.stackexchange.com/questions/277171/…
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 22:02
  • @ChrisF Credit given. :)
    – Taryn Staff
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 22:03
  • 1
    I wasn't fishing for credit, honest :)
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 22:04
  • Implemented latter bit. In the next build. //cc @ChrisF
    – Oded StaffMod
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 12:37

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