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This site started private beta before July 2012, so it is no longer "beta", it is a full site by our definition. We've removed the word "beta" from your site banner because we believe that you aren't really a beta site any more, even if you don't get ten questions per day.

Banner that reads "Congratulations" in three-dimensional white text with red, yellow and blue confetti.

What this means for you:

  • the "Beta" is removed from your banner
  • the site is moved to the "Launched" sites list on Area 51 - which will also remove the A51 info box from the right sidebar
  • retain beta reputation levels
  • full-site elections will be delayed but will be scheduled eventually

This is the start of a process that we are already discussing internally and will be bringing to the network for public discussion once the plan is finalized. My hope is that this will mean the end of the monolith we currently refer to as "Graduation" in favor of a well-defined set of small targets to achieve the various elements that made up "Graduation".

I'm sure you have many questions, please feel free to ask and I'll answer what I can. It helps me out a lot if you can limit answers to focus on a single question/subject rather than asking a dozen questions in one answer.

Please feel free to follow the MSE discussion for more background on this decision. You can ask questions either here or there; I'll try to keep up with all of them. Your mods also have some info, so they may be answering in my stead.

Thanks so much for your patience and stay tuned!

2 Answers 2

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For all the time I have been on this site, graduating from Beta has been a goal. I don't think we knew that all we had to do was to maintain a site that was definitely alive and eventually we would be rewarded.

So, Thanks!

We've also seen many attempts at a new site fail before they got out of the Area 51 phase, but I don't recall seeing a site in Beta die. I suppose that isn't publicized. What causes a site in Beta to be declared non-viable?

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    They don't close sites all that often. For graduated sites it does not seem like it has ever happened see meta question. It happens to betas every once in a while. They talked about some in a 2012 blog post and this meta question provides a google search link. I think they usually mention it someplace so people can get the data dump.
    – StrongBad
    Commented Aug 5, 2019 at 14:12
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    Also, if you read carefully, we are no longer in beta, but we haven't graduated. As this answer says basically all they have done is drop the beta label. While that is something, it is not everything.
    – StrongBad
    Commented Aug 5, 2019 at 14:15
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    When beta sites die, it is because no one is willing to moderate them anymore. There are a couple of posts about it around.
    – James Jenkins
    Commented Aug 6, 2019 at 18:18
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    Augur closed 2 weeks ago, after about 2 years in beta.
    – gerrit
    Commented Aug 13, 2019 at 20:20
  • @gerrit Can't resist: why didn't the users forsee this closing?
    – ab2
    Commented Aug 15, 2019 at 18:07
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    @ab2 maybe they did, and maybe that is part of the problem?
    – James Jenkins
    Commented Aug 15, 2019 at 18:17
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    @ab2 The users all left, so there were no users to foresee anything or not... and not only from Augur Stack Exchange, but from the entire platform as well. It was a Stack Exchange site for a platform that was no longer used by anybody. I only saw it because I was curious about the least visited Stack Exchange sites and this one had 0.0 q/day and less than 10 visits/day, and apparently nobody even replied to the meta announcement that it was going to close.
    – gerrit
    Commented Aug 15, 2019 at 18:41
  • @gerrit I cannot believe the now no longer beta Windows Phone site has a bright future.
    – StrongBad
    Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 22:14
  • @StrongBad That has been discussed on MSE, and of course on Meta Windows Phone.
    – gerrit
    Commented Aug 21, 2019 at 7:04
  • Conclusion: When all TGO has been paved over or is used for growing food, and all but domestic species have gone extinct, the TGO site will be terminated. By 2100?
    – ab2
    Commented Aug 21, 2019 at 12:13
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Oh.my.god.

We did it. WE DID IT. :'^)

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  • We didn't really do anything except not fail. It like when you watch a competition, with multiple eliminations (Forged in Fire comes to mind) and no one really wins, but one does not lose. We stayed active and have been declared a non-loser. There is still a way to go.
    – James Jenkins
    Commented Aug 15, 2019 at 15:27
  • @James Jenkins I don't think you are giving the users here enough credit -- particularly those -- of whom you are one -- who consistently ask good questions and write good answers.
    – ab2
    Commented Aug 15, 2019 at 18:06
  • @ab2 I agree that the community has done a lot to support and grow the site, but there is still a lot left to do. While not being in Beta any longer is great, we are in the same place today as we were 2 weeks ago. All that has really changed is removal of a label.
    – James Jenkins
    Commented Aug 15, 2019 at 18:14
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    One difference is that it will be considerably more difficult to close TGO now than it was a few weeks ago. But a danger is that we will become complacent.
    – ab2
    Commented Aug 15, 2019 at 18:21
  • @ab2 I am sorry but that is not true, see the comment under this answer "Non-beta sites can be closed too, so it's not like removing the label makes a difference there. – JNat♦ Aug 2 at 13:59"
    – James Jenkins
    Commented Aug 16, 2019 at 0:19
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    @James Jenkins Technically, you are right. But politically it would be very strange if The Powers That Be congratulated us (and many other sites) for being out of Beta two (or so) weeks ago, sketching a policy to deal with sites like ours (less than 10Q per day) and then closed us down. They would look like idiots. The default option is now to keep us open; before the announcement, we were much closer to falling off the cliff than we are now. Our danger is now complacency.
    – ab2
    Commented Aug 16, 2019 at 17:32
  • Honestly, that was already clear before. There have been repeated statements from SE staff that active beta sites are in no danger of closing. That's why I was always a bit exhausted when the next push towards "we need to do something to get out of beta" came up. We should and do stuff to improve the community, but it never was about "existence". Hopefully the removal of the beta label made everyone get that point now.
    – imsodin
    Commented Aug 16, 2019 at 18:10
  • @ab2 they took the Windows Phone site out of beta two weeks after the software reached its end of support. I really don't think losing the beta label provides any more security.
    – StrongBad
    Commented Aug 20, 2019 at 22:19

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