It waxes and wanes. Try looking at all articles labeled “meta”; there were 10(!) in April of 2009 that fit your description of meta-debates (arguing about the karma system, the proper use of the wiki, the first survey, and an Eliezer post about getting less meta).
Granted, that was near the beginning of Less Wrong… but then there was another burst with 5 such articles in April 2010 as well. (I don’t know what it is about springtime...) Starting the Discussion area in September 2010 seems to have siphoned most of it off of Main; there have been 3-5 meta-ish posts per month since then (except for April 2011, in which there were 9… seriously, what the hell is going on here?)
It waxes and wanes. Try looking at all articles labeled “meta”; there were 10(!) in April of 2009 that fit your description of meta-debates (arguing about the karma system, the proper use of the wiki, the first survey, and an Eliezer post about getting less meta).
Granted, that was near the beginning of Less Wrong… but then there was another burst with 5 such articles in April 2010 as well. (I don’t know what it is about springtime...) Starting the Discussion area in September 2010 seems to have siphoned most of it off of Main; there have been 3-5 meta-ish posts per month since then (except for April 2011, in which there were 9… seriously, what the hell is going on here?)
Maybe April Fools day gets people’s juices going?