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Whenever I post something on SO meta about a particular post or review, I ping the people involved with that post or review. It seems to be the equitable thing to do, allow people to speak up, if their actions are being discussed.

For example:

Flagging an answer and editing the details of that answer into another answer

I'll start by pinging anyone relevant to the discussion within the comment thread under the post. If the user is a regular in a chat room, I'll ping them there. After that I'll go to the activity of each user concerned leave a comment, like this:

a heads up I posted a meta post about a post you reviewed Flagging an answer and editing the details of that answer into another answer

This always feels a little cumbersome, as it creates noise on the site.

Should we let people know that their actions are being discussed on a meta site?

If so what's the best way to communicate this to them?

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    As long as there's no better way of doing it I suppose your method is ok. But you should clean up afterwards
    – PiedPiper
    Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 11:00

2 Answers 2

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The common practice on the sites I participate on (and moderate) is to leave one comment on the post being discussed, something like "this post is being discussed on meta (link)". No that doesn't ping everybody (other than the author) directly, but it leaves a comment visible to people who are interacting with that post. Further, by not pinging specific people, the comment is clearly an invitation to the public.

Leaving several comments to ping every individual, and especially posting comments anywhere other than on the post in question, feels more disruptive to me. Isn't it kind of odd for a post about topic A to get comments about topic B with links to meta threads that have nothing to do with anything on the page where the comment is?

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I don't think there is anything wrong with this method, but you should clear up these messages afterwards.
I have a habit of up-voting comments, where someone is trying to get my attention, or agreeing with my point.
So, you can just visit those comments of yours and delete the comments where there is a reply or an up-vote, similarly in the chat room and under the post.

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