We’ve made a small fix to eliminate a search bug from some profile pages. More importantly, you can help us set our 2019 priorities by taking our user survey — and get a chance to win free MuckRock swag.

Last week was mostly working on some longer term improvements, but we roll out a fix so that you will now see the correct plan on your settings page. If you’re looking to get a little more hands on with MuckRock development, we still have two openings for our News Nerd in Residence — apply today!

Last week we pushed a number of changes, from making it easier to crowdsource your FOIA finds to reducing the amount of follow ups in many jurisdictions. Plus, we have an opportunity to turn your chatbot dreams into reality.

We’re looking for our next round of News Nerds in Residence, who will work with the teams at DocumentCloud, MuckRock and Quartz to build chat-based “super powers” that can be used by tens of thousands of people.

In June, we put out a general call to news nerds everywhere asking for great ideas to make our Slackbot for news (we call it Quackbot) amazing. Today, we are thrilled to announce we have had not one but two journalists take up the challenge.

From million-dollar price tags to requests for a few cents, MuckRock and its users have had its fair share of FOIA fee debacles. We decided to look at our 50,000+ requests to-date and breakdown the biggest and most noteworthy in each state.

Last week on Slack, we chatted with Jeff Kelly Lowenstein, one of the reporters whose work led to the release of over 11 million records related to lottery winners. Here’s what he had to share on managing national projects, and making the leap to to global reporting.

MuckRock is currently taking submissions of your FOIA fee stories. With just one week into our crowdsource, requesters far and wide have brought their issues to the table. While submitted responses vary, overall they show major discrepancies in the FOIA fee system across the country.

Last week, Kel McClanahan, the executive director of National Security Counselors, a public interest law firm who often represents intelligence employees, whistle-blowers, and reporters (including MuckRock), joined us on our Slack chat. What followed may not be legal advice, but it sure was interesting.

Our goal at MuckRock is to help you get the records as quickly and affordable as possible. Help us with our goal by sharing your FOIA fee story! Your input will help create useful resources in tackling request fees and developing strategies that all requesters can use.