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Since yesterday the automatic comment posted when closing or flagging a post as a duplicate was changed from

Does this answer your question? [question title]

to

This question is similar to: [question title]. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.

This question raises an issue about the verbiage of the new comment.
In an answer to it, it is pointed out that on Stack Overflow staff did react to an issue raised with the now former automatic comment, saying:

We have updated the text of this auto-comment to say [see comment above]

This is another instance of the staff not communicating a significant change, while in the agreement struck with the moderators after the strike last year they agreed on committing to transparency:

Stack Exchange, Inc. staff will be as transparent as possible about product development and policy, regularly sharing updates and proposed changes. Releases will be communicated in a timely manner. Whenever possible, staff will provide insights behind key product and policy decisions to the community.

Is there a reason this change wasn't announced here in advance, even though it has gone live network-wide?

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    One counterpoint that might be brought up is that technically they did announce the change, but the fact is, most people on other network sites don't frequent Meta Stack Overflow, as it's a per-site meta for a site they don't browse. They go here to see the change, find nothing here, and assume it's a bug because of that. The same thing happened earlier with the feature change to allow bountied questions to be close voted.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Jun 29 at 19:38
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    Stack Overflow is still as large as all the other sites combined (more or less, haven't done the math in a while), so it makes sense that some feature requests / bugs are addressed on Meta Stack Overflow. I've added a few status-completed tags here over the years (or requested them), I wouldn't be surprised if those questions had an MSO counterpart. The tricky part is that staff does not always know what the impact is.
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Commented Jun 29 at 19:42
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    Sometimes even the MSE crowd doesn't know, nobody (including me) complained when the post summary design was only deployed to the Greatest Hits page: meta.stackexchange.com/q/375081/295232
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Commented Jun 29 at 19:43
  • @SonictheAnonymousHedgehog Yes, good point, that was indeed not part of the agreement, but it seems announcing it in a logical place ..makes sense. Besides, this was announced at the moment it was pushed network-wide, and seems to me to be one of those things that might have benefited from community input.
    – Joachim
    Commented Jun 29 at 19:43
  • @Glorfindel Yep, I can point to the plan to simplify the account registration process. Plenty of sites have introduced a registration requirement to answer in response to troll answers; the requirement was to add deliberate extra friction to those so trolls are more likely to just leave. The plan would break that feature. I pointed this out on the plan post, but I only heard of the plan because it was posted here.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Commented Jun 29 at 19:48
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    @Glorfindel I understand that, but that implies a lack of organisation (posts on MSO about the entire network should be posted/migrated to Meta, as well answers (decisions) that have an effect on the entire network).
    – Joachim
    Commented Jun 29 at 19:57
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    It's habit. They test new features on the big sites first before rolling out. Understandably announcements appear on the associated meta first, and mention may be neglected here. Not ideal. I'd like to see them all posted here too, yes, cross-site duplicates if necessary, so we know what's coming and can keep track of what works and doesn't. All it would take would be mindfulness (and a few seconds each time a post is made) to ensure Main Meta has a record of these things.
    – W.O.
    Commented Jun 30 at 0:09

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