So after hunting, reading and whatnot on the beta process... It looks like after we hit Beta, we have 7 days closed, and 90 days open?

And I may be way jumping, but at what point do we need to put together a FAQ, pick a favicon and a site theme?

I really like how english.stackexchange.com looks... the site theme fits perfectly, I love the little touches like the flore de li in the boxes on the right. Its a personal opinion but I think its one of the best looking SE sites.

Though I like the footer on area51 :) maybe we could do something similar with a nice family tree a few generations or toon people on the bottem? idk, just a thought

@warren I'm GeneJ Composer on Google+. The group on Facebook is called "Technology for Genealogy."

@Justin808 As I understand the process, the FAQs are built during the private beta. The site english.stackexchange.com, which has been launched (after its successful beta). it does have a nice look to it. Our beta site will look like the other betas, but we'll have our own faqs.

@Justin808 We'll have a minimum of 90 days in the public beta. That time (and more) is allowed for the site prove it will be viable. I don't know how many sites reach the proof of viability in 90 days, but I assume not many. Visit area51.stackexchange.com , click on the "beta" tab, and you'll see the length of time the different sites have been in beta.

@GeneJ money.stackexchange.com - 790 days... oh my.

@Justin808 I know. Yikes!

I think over the next few days I'm going to put together a list of questions to ask :) kinda jump the gun on the beta.

@GeneJ - followed you on g+ :)

10 more to go :)

@GeneJ - If you go to Area 51 and click on the "launched" tab, you'll see that 53 sites that were in Beta that eventually launched. If you click on any of them and look on the right, it says how long ago they launched and below that it says when the public beta started.

@GeneJ - So, for example, Mathematica was 8 months ago less 2 months ago = 6 months in beta. Jewish Life and Learning was 1 year ago less 4 months ago = at least 8 months. Role playing games was 2 years ago less 5 months ago = a year and a half. It looks like most take much more than 3 months.

@GeneJ - The sites will launch when they're showing healthy traffic (based on those 5 criteria) with good organization within (i.e. moderators elected, FAQ set up) and with traffic that is growing. That can happen after 3 months. And I think that could be possible with our genealogy site.

@GeneJ - I'm sorry, my mistake: Only about 32 sites were in Beta that launched, not 53.

Hmmm. Not sure if I really like these chatrooms. Very wierd. Possibly too addicting and time-wasting as well.

Aha! Found this: stackapps.com/questions/3127/…

Rats. Doesn't work. Google Chrome no longer allows user scripts unless they are from the Chrome Web Store.

@GeneJ - I know the site hasn't launched yet, but I was wondering if it wouldn't be a bad idea to explain to people new to Stack Exchange what to expect when the site goes to beta.

As someone with experience on SE Betas, it's important to set the standard for quality Q&A from day 1, and one of the ways to achieve this is with editing.

I was just looking for the private beta privileges list but can't seem to remember where they are.... I'm almost certain editing and voting to close/reopen is included, as well as commenting everywhere. People should be prepared to have their posts edited and improved and understand this is a collaborative site. I think things will go much more smoothly if we get more people in the site's meta asap and get them participating.

@l

@jmort253 - how do you pre-explain what to expect from an SE Q&A without the faq section available?

@warren - First, the only part of the FAQ that will be missing is the first section, the one that typically describes what is and isn't on topic. As for the rest of the FAQ, it's all cookie cutter template and is the same on all SE sites.

I have some ideas for how to warm people up, but quite frankly I don't think they're all that great. I'd say it's best to just tackle the problem day 1 in the private beta.

Damn, I wish I could find the list of privileges for an SE private beta site. I think everyone can edit first day if I remember correctly... if memory serves, forming a polite, constructive editing group, people who can edit others' posts, without making them feel like chumps, would be really helpful.

We'll find out soon though.... I think we'll go to beta this month.

@lkessler I have been following the various proposals that entered beta--gone far enough to review the different faqs in some cases. I've been participating in a few betas; my experience has been constructive/positive. It seems a good environment that should engage the community. I liked the take JustinY had with the FaceBook group--it if takes a little time for that beta to reach its potential, that's okay with me (as long as it is making consistent progress).

@jmort253 Your comment is particularly on topic, "explain to people new to Stack Exchange what to expect when the site goes to beta." IF you can figure out a way to hold that discussion without having it slammed (trashed as off topic/duplicative of faqs), it would be a great idea.

I've been in want of a developing set of faqs since the definition stage. I may be just me, but I didn't take to reverse engineering the faq from the definition questions. If there had been more discussion about the questions (more good, bad and ugly), perhaps I would not have been so challenged. I trust that the moderators and SE experts will help get us through this! Keeping the faith--GeneJ

It will be almost impossible to engage the committers until the beta site roles out, and even then it will take some work to point them to the meta. Its hard to find unless you're the exploratory type (though genealogists usually are so I guess we've got a slight advantage there).

But I really don't think we need to worry too much about the FAQ. The only issue we'll have is how to tackle the brick-wall questions; but even then there's only one right way that fits the SE format.

why kind of "brick-wall" questions are you thinking, @JustinY?

"I can't find any more information on this ancestor. Here's what I know.... Help!!!"

@JustinY there will be a message at the top of every page with a link to meta calling out its purpose, in addition to the regular link in the header. we put that message up for the first few weeks of every site.

Hi @RebeccaChernoff -- Thank you.

a bit early, but there will also be a similar message on the meta site that points you to blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/07/… if you wanted to glance over it ahead of schedule (;

@RebeccaChernoff Awesome, that's good to know

@JustinY Just like most genealogists learned to write effective queries, I believe genealogists can learn to write effective posts for the Q&A that will benefit the community.

@GeneJ I agree, and that's why I'm not worried about us being able to nail down the FAQ and educate the community on it.

@RebeccaChernoff Any chance the moderator angels are looking more favorably on us? Ala, is there a chance they'll send out the re-start notification to the two closed genealogy proposals? Sure would be nice to give all those folks a chance to participate in the private beta.

@JustinY That's what is so great about having you and the experienced SE-ers involved now. Gives us all some faith.

@GeneJ I'm not involved in that, sorry

@RebeccaChernoff kk. I'll continue to hope, then, that we have and that they will.

people that haven't been around in ages aren't really the people you want in the private beta. most likely they've lost enthusiasm.

@RebeccaChernoff - what other promotional thoughts do you have?

that's for y'all to figure out (;

hahah

here i thought maybe you'd have a brainstorm

@warren hehe, sorry. I'm not a real committer, just an employee with an interest. (:

lol

@RebeccaChernoff As an advisor recently said, "Basically everyone has a family, right?" Any chance the proposal might get a plug with a post on StackExchange's Google+ page?

@GeneJ initially, you don't want everyone on the site. you need to figure some things out as a community before you get an influx. things like figuring out some of the main tags, etc. then I'd say a focus is generating great content, not focusing on conning people to the site. (; Great content will attract people, it will attract the experts you want. It sounds a little weird...but an influx of people can be dangerous to a new community.

@RebeccaChernoff OooO, I thought your question about "promotional thoughts" was directed at the final nine percent experienced StackExchange users we need in order to qualify for the private beta. (As opposed to promoting the site after we pass through to the public beta.)

@GeneJ I had a promotional thoughts question? (:

@GeneJ - it was me who asked @RebeccaChernoff about promoting :)

Is that something we can start to figure out here, now (the main tags, etc.) or should we wait for the meta site to go live?

We should wait for the beta. The tags depend on the content, and its hard to predict what the distribution of content will be.

@JustinY hmm, I haven't been through a beta myself but I would imagine having some tags right away for main content organization would help with the first round of questions. I'm good with waiting though, just happy the site is starting soon.

yeah, you can't really have tags without questions, since tags are dependent on the questions themselves

genealogy definitely needs to be not a tag :)

that's one of the important things at the start of a site: someone noticing "hey, we have { 4 tags that are all really similar } - that's silly! let's fix this!"

and why a flood of people can be harmful

i'm not sure how big the flood will be once it leaves private beta

(nor, for that matter, how much i can contribute other than questions at this point myself :))

yeah, public beta is obviously (and of course hopefully) an influx of people, but that's why the private beta is important

figure that stuff out during private beta so things are nice and shiny for the new folks at public beta

well, once we hit public beta status, its a matter of advertisement. I'll be posing on ancestry.com discussion groups I participate in. I'll be asking questions too, and hopefully answering some as well :)

but again, to promote/advertise, you need great content. ie, linking people to a specific answer can draw people in better than linking to a site in general and saying "go find stuff you like"

also have to be careful not to be spammy (:

@RebeccaChernoff Very true, though I see "Where can I find information" and "Where can I get help" types of questions on ancestry.com a lot which is where I would post about generally, if not linking to specific answers.

there's nothing wrong with it, of course. but it can be a better hook when it is "hey look this totally just helped you, or you totally found this very interesting" which turns in to "hmmm I wonder what else is here"

just makes it more tangible

Sigh. Genealogists should never confuse the source of a question! Blush.

man, I am racking up the stars in here!

@RebeccaChernoff You wrote, "people that haven't been around in ages aren't really the people you want in the private beta. most likely they've lost enthusiasm." The statistics/our experience suggests otherwise.

Continuing. Of course it takes far more time for member/outsiders to locate and contact other Area 51 members, but that is what Louis (mostly) and others have been doing. We've been working to contact those who had committed to the failed project--especially the forty-six with rep. By my count this morning all but 10 (of the 46) HAVE committed to the new proposal. I don't doubt this was mostly due to the extraordinary work by Louis.

Continuing. Of the remaining 10 (of 46) who have not yet committed, we've just located and not sent messages to another six. The contact information for the final four remains elusive. Just saying ....

Sending out an email at this point would seem troublesome. As you say, a number of people have already committed, so sending an email to the previous people would be spamming people. ):

The proposal is going to hit 100%...it doesn't rest on sending an email to those people.

(and yes, Louis has done some great work getting the word out)

my dad gets the EOGN newsletter and saw the proposal plug there.

@RebeccaChernoff Eastman's newsletter-how neat. I didn't intend for my comment to be about "getting there." For another time. I see a typo in my statement above ... should read, "we've just located and now sent messages to ... " (rather than "not sent ..").

I understood. I'm just saying that y'all are doing awesome, and sending out unsolicited official emails like that from the company - well we do that only in exceptional circumstances. My own opinion is that y'all are doing far better than that. (keep in mind, it's not my call, community team handles this stuff)

@RebeccaChernoff Understood. But shhhh ... do hope you'll pass on our stats. Also hope our Q & A meets with the approval of your dad!

I love having a chat room! Thanks for setting it up.