Each 'Main' site has a 'Meta' site linked to it. Reputation is earned only in the main site while badges are not. Votes in the meta do not affect reputation, good or bad. Meta is supposed to be for questions, maybe discussions, about the main site. That's about it in terms of what to do about issues, how to balance things and what not. Meta is not supposed to be questions about how it works (like this question is). Think of meta as the 'bridge' on a ship, not the library or information center.

The status of this site, public beta, has no bearing on how things work as far as the UI/UX goes. That is all done globally for SE sites. (Stack Overflow, again, is slightly different, and Area 51 is, well, alien.) We can do some minor changes in part of the Help pages, but not much.

Your "little send-off letter" was probably the Tour, though that's only a guess.

Within the Stack Exchange Network there is another unique site, pointed out by NVZ above, Meta Stack Exchange, (MSE) which is a Meta site, but acts like a main site, in that votes count for rep on MSE, and it has no "Main" site attached to it. It's like the bridge of the fleet flag ship. All issues of UX/UI, bugs, etc. that affect the SE Network (or multiple sites on the network) go there.

Finally, chat can be helpful, both for learning the system and as a place to check on ideas for questions. (Better on some sites than others of course, since different users are in different places.) There is not, however, any way to contact users in private, chat or private message, or even by email. That's part of the design of SE as a Q&A site rather than a forum.

Each 'Main' site has a 'Meta' site linked to it. Reputation is earned only on the main site while badges are not. Votes in the meta do not affect reputation, good or bad. Meta is supposed to be for questions, maybe discussions, about the main site. That's about it in terms of what to do about issues, how to balance things and what not. Meta is not supposed to be questions about how it works (like this question is). Think of meta as the 'bridge' on a ship, not the library or information center.

The status of this site, public beta, has no bearing on how things work as far as the UI/UX goes. That is all done globally for SE sites. (Stack Overflow, again, is slightly different, and Area 51 is, well, alien.) We can do some minor changes in part of the Help pages, but not much.

Your "little send-off letter" was probably the Tour, though that's only a guess.

Within the Stack Exchange Network there is another unique site, pointed out by NVZ above, Meta Stack Exchange, (MSE) which is a Meta site, but acts like a main site, in that votes count for rep on MSE, and it has no "Main" site attached to it. It's like the bridge of the fleet flag ship. All issues of UX/UI, bugs, etc. that affect the SE Network (or multiple sites on the network) go there.

Finally, chat can be helpful, both for learning the system and as a place to check on ideas for questions. (Better on some sites than others of course, since different users are in different places.) There is not, however, any way to contact users in private, chat or private message, or even by email. That's part of the design of SE as a Q&A site rather than a forum.