Comment 18 for bug 392799

Yes, I originally created #ubuntu-meta (and MetaBot, although that was supposed to be just a part of it) precisely to try and address these issues.

The advantage of it over other approaches is that it doesn't attempt to change #ubuntu in any way, but merely supplement it transparently and make it more manageable for helpers. On the contrary, other proposals I have come across would involve making drastic changes that would be hard to transparently undo if that proved necessary.

I have to say, regrettably, that the people who were most vocal about #ubuntu being "too crowded" were often also the ones who, while seeming interested about #ubuntu-meta initially, didn't really contribute to it in any meaningful way - and an appropriate people contributing to a channel is the only way to ever make it work properly... which goes both for #ubuntu-meta and #ubuntu itself.