I could be wrong, but changes are made on a development copy of the system and then tested in a test environment. When the developer is happy that a change is working the way it should they “roll out” to the live system. There are occasions when minor tweaks will occur on a live system, this is not about those though. Whenever a roll out occurs, put out a direct message to all users notifying of the release, what it fixes/affects, and possibly with links to forum and/or GitHub where appropriate. This doesn’t have to be a book, just an alert to say something has changed, here is a link to more info if you want the detail. Something akin to the sign on the motorway that says roadworks ahead, rather than letting you sit in a queue for 3 hours wondering if there is an accident up ahead! Ideally if there are big changes planned then the alerts/dm would go out ahead of time to warn/inform those that might be affected of the upcoming change, akin to the motorway sign warning of roadworks all next week. For instance, if I’m about to show a group how to make an observation, and that part of iNat changes, then it is very embarrassing to have to stumble around trying to figure out why what worked yesterday suddenly doesn’t work (has happened to me!), Whereas if I know the system has or is going to change, then I can either postpone the session until after I have had a chance to explore the changes, or I can explain upfront to the group that the system is in the midst of an update, and ask them to bare with me as I encounter any issues.
Off the top of my head? The exact same places they announce the observation of the week (i.e., the blog, the iNat homepage newsfeed, the Twitter account, the FB page, email notifications, and the Instagram) would be where to start.
If they do it in ALL those locations, especially the blog and the newsfeed*, then it reaches even the people who don’t have access to one or more (people who don’t follow the FB page, or don’t have Instagram,…or go to the forums).
*since the newsfeed is on every user’s iNat home on the website, and in “News” on both the iOS and Android apps, everyone has them.
None of those alternatives work for me. I will stay with the forum - where I appreciate the - your mileage may differ - discussion.
And that’s fine, because I’m not saying that changes shouldn’t be still be announced on the forums. :)
I’m saying the forums shouldn’t be the only place changes are announced.