The [featured] tag is a Meta-only red tag (i.e. only a diamond users may add it). Featured Meta questions appear in the site-wide sidebar, and featured questions on Meta Stack Exchange appear network-wide in the same sidebar. Use for questions about when to apply the tag, or how it works.
featured is a tag that can only be added by diamond(♦) users (i.e. moderators and Community Managers) to questions on Meta sites. When the tag is applied to a site-specific Meta, it will appear in the sidebar for that site.
Questions that are featured on Meta Stack Exchange (this site) will appear in this box on all network sites. These are denoted by the MSE logo by their title.
It should be noted that there are a limited number of slots in this bar, and featuring a question consumes one of them (blog posts will also consume slots). If all the slots are filled, no Hot Meta Posts will be shown. MSE featured questions do not count towards this total.
