Why was the reputation change not announced on this meta site?

Question

I'm aware that there was a blog announcing the reputation change, but I only just came across the meta post. I was surprised to see it on the SO meta rather than here because it affects all SE sites.

I did search the post, but only found a comment speculating why it was posted there:

I see why they made this into a banner and a blog post, instead of a post in meta.stackexchange.com : they knew we wouldn't like it, and we can't downvote blog posts into oblivion. – Ismael Miguel yesterday

Is that really the reason why it wasn't posted on this meta site? If not, then why? Is there a new policy to make announcements in these blogs from now on?

Answer 1

The essential point is a different one: it really didn't matter where this announcement was made.

The real point: before the public announcement, there should have been an internal one, here on MSE. Ideally, not only an announcement, but a proposal asking for feedback!

I agree with the other answer, there are good reasons to make the final announcement on the blog. But that final announcement should not have been the first time the community learned about this.

Beyond that, I agree with the comments: asking about the actual motivation of SE Inc. can only result in guessing and speculation. I suggest to not put energy into such activities. The stuff we can directly observe is annoying enough already.

Answer 2

From what I can tell, the policy has historically been to announce major system changes on the blog. This stretches back from the Jeff Atwood days until around 2015.

Since 2016, the team has generally been announcing changes here on this meta site. However, in my view, this has presented a problem: whenever newer users are linked to this meta site, they often don't realize that they've been linked to a different site (due to the same design elements), and go on to ask their (off-topic) question here. Whenever something new is announced here, I often see a spike in off-topic questions here that we have to moderate. (One of those spikes was so big such that the reputation requirement to ask questions here had to be raised to 2 from 1.)

Personally, for this reason, I prefer such announcements to be on the blog.

Answer 3

The announcement in the Meta Stack Overflow post that you cite is not an official announcement by the company. It is just a local moderator posting something informative. Since that author doesn't work for Stack Exchange there was no obligation, or even expectation, to post at all.

Given that this was apparently a purely voluntary action, and indeed a favor to the community, there are two logical reasons to have posted it on Meta Stack Overflow:

1. Stack Overflow is that moderator's community.
2. An announcement of this sort is likely to receive many downvotes. Indeed, the question currently has a score of -317. On Meta Stack Exchange those downvotes translate to lost reputation. On Meta Stack Overflow there is no independent reputation, so there is no danger in posting something unpopular.

Answer 4

One possible consideration would be the fact that there's only two Featured MSE post slots in the sidebar, and those two slots are currently being held by Feedback post: Moderator review and reinstatement processes and Post for clarifications on the updated pronouns FAQ. Announcing a network-wide change on Meta would probably be ineffective without Featuring, and effective Featuring would require de-Featuring one of the others. Announcing it via the blog doesn't have that issue, since blog posts get their own sidebar slots.