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Or, in other words, why is the link to Meta called "feedback" and not "Meta"?

For every SE site I've looked at on my Android phone in "full site" mode, there is a link entitled "feedback" which takes me to that site's Meta page.

screenshot of smartphone

(The link is on the left in the column under LAW - I have neither skill nor capability to draw red circles.)

Bearing in mind that in mobile view the link is called Meta, the change to "feedback" seems odd terminology and makes me wonder if it has been mis-labelled or if the hyperlink is meant to go somewhere else.

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    Probably because outside the computer industry the meaning of the word "Meta" is not so well known.
    – Robert Longson
    Sep 16, 2021 at 11:09
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    I don't mind it being labled "Feedback" exactly for the same reason Robert mentioned. The part that's weird is that when you're on meta.stackexchange.com, that link takes you to meta.stackexchange.com (the same page) which won't make sense for many users.
    – 41686d6564 stands w. Palestine
    Sep 16, 2021 at 11:43
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    It's probably a good idea to display a pop-up that explains what meta is for people who visit meta through that link and/or if they're visiting for the first time (I'm not sure if something similar already exists for the first visit in general).
    – 41686d6564 stands w. Palestine
    Sep 16, 2021 at 11:49
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    Apparently, the "Feedback" link on Meta.SE issue has been discussed before.
    – 41686d6564 stands w. Palestine
    Sep 16, 2021 at 11:53

2 Answers 2

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In general, meta is used to give feedback about the site: what are the bugs of the site, what features do you want – all these requests are made on meta. That is why we have some of these tags:

  • for asking for a feature in form of feedback

  • for stating any bug present in site in form of feedback

  • for asking to know about any feature in form of feedback

Quoting a line by rene from here:

there is no issue as feedback about Meta should be posted on Meta.

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  • It is not about a link to meta.stackexchange.com but about a link to meta.law.stackexchange.com On the site-specific meta pages there are not tags like 'feature-request', 'bug' or 'support'.
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Oct 25, 2021 at 8:16
  • @SextusEmpiricus: While those tags are used less frequently on the per-site metas, you will find that they very much do exist.
    – Kevin
    Oct 27, 2021 at 7:18
  • @Kevin indeed you are right those tags exist. But anyway, the point is that those tags are hardly used. On cross validated (statistics) we have in the last two years more than five times the tag 'discussion' in comparison to 'support'. Since Jan first 2019 the numbers are at this moment 188 versus 34. The tags 'feature-request' and 'bug' only occured respectively 9 and 7 times.
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Oct 27, 2021 at 12:07
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I have also encountered this 'feedback' as problematic.

For a long time I had troubles to navigate to meta.

Not being able to find the link, I just type in the URL, which I know is something like meta.site.stackexchange.com or site.meta.stackexchange.com (I always forget the order and sometimes, if my browser auto-fill does not give me a suggestion with previous visited pages, I have to try two times).

I would say that the link should be called 'meta'.

  • The webpage is called 'meta'.
  • On the mobile webpage there is a link to it called 'meta'.

Because of that it is confusing that there is no link called 'meta' on the webpage.

Aside from that

  • the term 'meta' seems a better term than feedback.

I associate the term 'feedback' more with a page that tells you how to contact the site owners and give them feedback. The term 'meta' is more associated with questions and discussion about the platform (which is the way how I use the site-specific meta, it's a bit like Wikipedia's 'talk' tab).

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  • The issue of how to get to meta has been discussed before
    – bobble
    Oct 27, 2021 at 0:01
  • So more support that the 'feedback' name makes little sense. (Unless the access to meta is reduced on purpose)
    – Sextus Empiricus
    Oct 27, 2021 at 7:09
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    "meta.site.stackexchange.com or site.meta.stackexchange.com" - Either order works for HTTP links (it redirects to the correct HTTPS version, which is https://site.meta.stackexchange.com), but an HTTPS link in the format of https://meta.rpg.stackexchange.com format throws a certificate error.
    – V2Blast StaffMod
    Oct 28, 2021 at 19:26
  • Related: meta.stackexchange.com/q/372787
    – Random Person
    Dec 25, 2021 at 18:51

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