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Meta Stack Exchange is where users like you discuss bugs, features, and support issues that affect the software powering all 144 Stack Exchange communities.

Why is a link to http://meta.stackoverflow.com displayed in the footer of every Stack Exchange site (e.g. cooking, sceptics)?

I mean, every Stack Exchange site has its own meta site, so why is http://meta.stackoverflow treated so specially? Shouldn't it be visible only on http://stackoverflow.com?

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2 Answers 2

up vote 8 down vote accepted

Meta SO is also the global Meta for general network-wide SO/SE issues which are not specific to a single Q&A within the network.

If you look at the FAQ it states:

If your question is about:

  • Stack Overflow
  • Stack Exchange
  • Stack Overflow Careers
  • Promotions & Advertising Support, feature requests, or bug reports for the core Stack Exchange engine that powers all Stack Exchange websites …

it is welcome here.

So it's not merely for questions about Stack Overflow. There will however be a separate Meta for Stack Overflow at some point.

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I am adding one more point to answer of Bart.

Currently all feature request, bug reporting, Promotions & Advertising Support is done on Meta StackOverflow. Hence it is shown on all site's footer. But this will be replaced in near future with MetaStackExchange

Please see The future of meta.stackoverflow and meta.stackexchange

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