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Back in 2016, Ana conducted a couple of experimental "town-hall" chat sessions. They worked pretty well, so we all agreed to keep doing them...

...And then, uh, didn't.

That's a real shame. So, we revived the idea, starting on the 12th of July. And we're gonna continue to do a half-hour session every two weeks-ish, varying the time a bit as we go, for total of 6 sessions. The last event of those six was held from 18:30 UTC to 19:00 UTC on September 27th 2017.

What's the topic?

Whatever happens to be going on that week! Current meta discussions, new features, that wretched chat rate-limiter... We'll pick a topic and introduce it, give folks a chance to discuss, and then move on, following the format we used during the last test.

Sounds dreadful. Where do I sign up?

No events are currently scheduled; future series will be announced here and listed in the bulletin.

I have thoughts that are at best tangentially relevant to any of this; where can I post them?

Hey, there's a comment box below; knock yourself out!

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  • 4
    What is the purpose/necessity of registration? I'd like to at least lurk, but I can't guarantee that something else doesn't take priority at that time of day.
    – jscs
    Commented Jul 8, 2017 at 13:08
  • 6
    Registering gives you a mildly obnoxious alert if you're in chat and the event is about to start, @Josh. Also, I guess, lets me know that someone is interested enough to click a button. If you don't need or want that, you don't need to register.
    – Shog9 Mod
    Commented Jul 8, 2017 at 16:46
  • Will the topic be announced in advance?
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented Jul 9, 2017 at 4:24
  • Probably not, @Monica. Aiming for a bit more informal, with the idea that if we do these often enough it won't be so high-pressure (for everyone).
    – Shog9 Mod
    Commented Jul 9, 2017 at 4:26
  • Ok, thanks. I hope the time does move around to give more people a chance to participate.
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented Jul 9, 2017 at 4:27
  • 3
    Why not feature this, so those not often in MSE will also notice?
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 7:54
  • 1
    I didn't realize chat didn't create an event for me, @Shadow. It told me it did. Lesson here is: chat lies! (I went and created the event manually)
    – Shog9 Mod
    Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 4:13
  • @Shog9 Damn chat! How am I supposed to trust that?!
    – EKons
    Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 9:29
  • Will this include another google hangout with view of your as always spotlessly cleaned apartment, @Shog9 ?
    – Magisch
    Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 10:57
  • Could the Town Hall last longer than 30 minutes so more people can join and more topics can be discussed (i.e longer time, multiple consecutive sessions with breaks in between)
    – Anthony Pham
    Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 20:31
  • After a few sessions we'll probably just start picking different times, @Anthony.
    – Shog9 Mod
    Commented Jul 12, 2017 at 20:31
  • I'm registered, but may be one of those people who doesn't turn up - it's at 2.30am my time. But I'm sometimes awake at that time and did stay up for a 4.30am cogsci chat that was important for a total revaluation of the site. I don't put the Town Halls in that category.
    – user310756
    Commented Aug 7, 2017 at 3:12
  • Can we whine about moderators or is there another chat for that?
    – user152261
    Commented Sep 11, 2017 at 4:56

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Epilogue: September 27, 2017

Final episode in the initial 6-session series. Topic was voting fraud, past and future plans to more effectively control it. Also a wee bit of retrospective on this series.

Transcript can be found here: https://chat.meta.stackexchange.com/rooms/89/conversation/town-hall-chat-8-27-september-2017

Epilogue: September 13, 2017

Topic was "let's just talk about what we've been doing" - Jon shared some notes from the Documentation sunsetting and DAG liaisoning, bluefeet talked about the work she put in to create an epic answer to a hard question here on meta and also some of the SQL work she's been doing.

Open discussion involved how hard it can be to catch a CM.

Transcript can be found here: https://chat.meta.stackexchange.com/rooms/89/conversation/town-hall-chat-7-13-september-2017

Epilogue: August 23, 2017

Topic was Reopen queue success rate by input source. A pretty obscure issue, but at least there were tables of numbers.

Also discussed: people who don't upvote the things one might wish they would, and do upvote the things one might wish they wouldn't. Anonymous feedback.

Transcript can be found here: https://chat.meta.stackexchange.com/rooms/89/conversation/town-hall-chat-6-23-august-2017

Epilogue: August 9, 2017

Topic was The Sunsetting of Documentation; much retrospective.

Transcript can be found here: https://chat.meta.stackexchange.com/rooms/89/conversation/town-hall-5-9-august-2017

Epilogue: July 26, 2017

The second event involved two topics, which was probably a mistake; we somehow didn't expect folks to be as interested in mentoring as they were, so crammed in a second topic which mostly just derailed a thriving discussion. Probably won't do that again!

Transcript can be found here: https://chat.meta.stackexchange.com/rooms/89/conversation/town-hall-4-26-july-2017

Epilogue: July 12, 2017

The first event went well - transcript can be found here: https://chat.meta.stackexchange.com/rooms/89/conversation/town-hall-3-12-july-2017

Topics included Channels, DAG, review, and feature-work.

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