Yes, MuckRock is a great service, not least of which for the window it provides all non-customers into how our government FOIA works. By default, if you file a request, that request -- including all of its updates and resulting response -- is publicly viewable:
Before FOIAing an agency, I'll sometimes check MuckRock to get a better understanding of what to expect, including who to direct my letter to and an estimate of how long I might wait...or best of all, examples of precedent to use to bolster my legal standing ("On June 3, 2014, you fulfilled a similar request for James Smith via Muckrock").
Hell, you don't even have to be in the FOIA-writing mindset...just reading that list will give you a veritable shitton of ideas of the kinds of things about government that has piqued the interest of other reporters, private investigators, politicians, and hedge fund analysts. Analyzing the metadata alone would make for a very useful service.
https://www.muckrock.com/foi/list/
Before FOIAing an agency, I'll sometimes check MuckRock to get a better understanding of what to expect, including who to direct my letter to and an estimate of how long I might wait...or best of all, examples of precedent to use to bolster my legal standing ("On June 3, 2014, you fulfilled a similar request for James Smith via Muckrock").
Hell, you don't even have to be in the FOIA-writing mindset...just reading that list will give you a veritable shitton of ideas of the kinds of things about government that has piqued the interest of other reporters, private investigators, politicians, and hedge fund analysts. Analyzing the metadata alone would make for a very useful service.