Add easier links to meta sites

Question

I am using the Worldbuilding site as an example. As of now, there is no way to easily get from the main site to meta (or back). To get there, you either have to change the URL in your browser or click one of the items in the Hot Meta Posts section and from there click the header to get to the main menu.

Here is where I am proposing a change:

The word meta could be linked to the meta for that site. This seems like a simple, intuitive change. Sure, it's small, but it would save everyone time without hurting the experience of new users who can easily get confused by complicated menus that lead in circles.

The picture here didn't look right, so after a little more playing around with it, I got these. Take your pick.

Answer 1

Meta should be more visible, but I'm not sure a direct link in the community bulletin is going to be visible enough to new users either. (Plus, sometimes there aren't any meta posts in that bulletin, as somebody said in a comment.) You can get to meta from the hamburger-like icon in the top right (the site navigator), but that's pretty unintuitive. (I think most people expect settings there, not sites, because of the hamburger styling.)

Instead of using the community bulletin, let's take advantage of the (new) part of the site that is designed for "sub-sites": the left nav. Currently in full use only on Stack Overflow, it looks like this:

"Stack Moderators" is a Team, a type of (private) site attached to SO. Teams are the proximate cause for left nav, as I understand it.

There's plenty of room in the left nav and meta is important, so it's worth a line there. Because there's some extra space, it'd be even better if it said something like "Meta, for questions about this site" or "Meta Discussions", but even just "Worldbuilding Meta" like in the site selector would be informative.

Answer 2

As Glorfindel commented, it's already possible to navigate to the site's meta by using the hamburger menu on the top right. This isn't mobile-only; it's available on the desktop site too:

I think that having a link in the header would make it look ugly in my opinion, and as Laurel commented, the header would disappear if there are no hot meta posts.

I'd support having a more clear link to meta, however, as it's not clear to new users that that's how they navigate to the site's meta; I think a lot of them search Google for it and end up here, and thus ask their (site-specific and thus off-topic) question here. I remember in the old, old top bar (pre-November 2013, when it was themed along with the site) that there used to be a link to meta in the top bar itself; it's unlikely that it would be reinstated in the current top bar due to its design. But I disagree with this feature request as it is currently written.