Frequently Asked Questions

What is “Area 51?”

Area 51 is the Stack Exchange Network staging zone. It’s where groups of experts come together to build new Q&A sites that work just like Stack Overflow. Here you can:

• Get involved in the process. Help sites get off the ground by defining what’s on- and off-topic, recruiting a critical mass of experts, and committing to the site’s success.
• Propose new Q&A sites. If you have an idea for an expert Q&A site, propose it here.

Someone proposed a great site. How do I get involved?

A good Q&A site needs a lot of people to support it, so users are asked to invite their friends and help build the community. Continuous participation is really, really important because each phase of the proposal has different ways of getting involved.

3. Commit! When a proposal enters the "Commitment" phase, we will present a petition for the site's creation. Interested users are asked to digitally "sign" the proposal with their full name to help assure that site will have an active community in those critical, early days. While your full name is never shown, you may add an optional comment which is displayed alongside your username in the list of committers. To ensure that commitment is taken seriously, you may only be committed to three sites at any one time.
   
   Once you've fulfilled your commitment on a new site by asking and answering a few questions, you'll be able to commit to another site. If you are very active, you may be able to re-use your commitment as soon as the second day of public beta. If you aren't active on the site, you won't be able to re-use the commitment until the end of the public beta (up to 90 days).
4. Beta. Perhaps the most important phase. This is the actual, live site set up on a "probationary" basis to see if people will use it. It is very important to participate early. The earliest questions will set the tone and topic of the site for a long time. This is also the time to spread the word via Twitter, blogs, and email far and wide. If the site does not get used, it will be deleted. Each site is accessible through two URLs:
   
   
   • topic-name.stackexchange.com: This is where you ask questions, answer questions, tag questions, edit questions, and vote. The beta site is set up with a temporary URL and a temporary design. The site name and final design will be chosen when the beta period ends.
   • meta.topic-name.stackexchange.com: We don’t want to talk about the site on the site itself, so each site has a meta discussion area to talk about things like what questions are appropriate, what tags we should use, etc. The meta site is accessible through the 'feedback' link at the bottom of the page. This is where you help design the site.

How do I start a new site?

If your area of expertise doesn’t already have a Stack Exchange site, propose it here. Stack Exchange sites are free to create and free to use. All we ask is that you have an enthusiastic, committed group of expert users who will check in regularly, asking and answering questions.

The creation of Stack Exchange sites is a democratic, community-driven process. That does not mean the majority of Area 51 users have to love your site idea. It simply means you have to recruit a community of users large enough so that questions get good answers quickly. Reach out to other experts to build support for your site–bloggers, enthusiasts, and support groups can all benefit from a world-class, canonical collection of expert answers to the hardest questions.

Can I use Stack Exchange to support my product?

Stack Exchange does not offer a private label service for owning a Q&A site. You are free to create an expert Q&A site in your area of expertise. There is a lot of visibility and credibility to becoming a central figure in an expert community, but Stack Exchange is a product for the Internet community at large, not for corporations or individuals.

What makes good on- and off-topic questions?

The questions on your site say a lot about the community. To attract experts, you need a site where people are asking very interesting and challenging questions, not the basic questions found on every other Q&A site. Your goal is to make it clear that this is a PRO site.

• Ask real, expert questions.
  We want you to capture the moment that plumbers feel when they look at PlumberOverflow and say, "Whoa! That's my kinda site!" On a site about plumbing, there are 200 easy plumbing questions, and they've all been asked 100 times on other sites. Don't suggest questions like "How do I unclog a drain." Instead ask, "If you run 2.5 GPM through 50 feet of 1/2" galv pipe, how many psi will be lost to friction loss?" Remember, the pro sites WILL attract the enthusiasts, but not the other way around!
• Ask questions that can be answered.
  Avoid asking question that are subjective, argumentative, or require extended discussion. Stack Exchange does not work well with questions like "Which is the best..."
• Off-topic questions are important, too.
  They define the very outer boundary of a site. The ideal off-topic question is one that will likely be asked, but should be considered off-topic, nonetheless. Avoid posting silly, off-topic questions that do not help define the site.
• When voting, focus on your site.
  Don't worry about whether a question might be asked on another site. Your goal is to make the best possible site for this community.

You can only create 5 questions per proposal, to encourage you to narrow down to only the best questions and to leave room for others to contribute. If you think of a new question that you really want to add, you'll have to delete one of the others before you'll be able to add it.

What is reputation?

Reputation is a (very) rough measurement of how much the Area 51 community trusts you. Reputation is never given, it is earned by convincing other users that you know what you're talking about.

You'll earn your first 50 reputation from confirming your email address. This will allow you to create proposals and example questions.

Earn more reputation by creating great proposals and example questions. If other users like your contributions, you'll earn reputation:

Proposal is followed or committed to	+5
Question is voted as on- or off-topic	+5
Question is voted as bad example question	-2

Each user can vote for only 5 on-topic and 5 off-topic questions per proposal. In addition, a maximum of 30 "not a good example question" votes can be cast per user per day. Each user can earn a maximum of 200 reputation per day.

When a proposal enters the commitment phase, you can earn reputation by referring users to the proposal:

Referred user with a confirmed email address commits to the proposal

+5

After a proposal enteres the beta phase, you earn the most reputation when you follow through on your commitment or a user you referred follows through on theirs, and that extra reputation won't count towards your maximum reputation per day:

Follow through on your commitment	+50
Referred user with a confirmed email address follows through on their commitment	+25

Amass enough reputation points and Area 51 will allow you to go beyond simply following and voting on proposals.

^† you can always comment on your own posts, even with 1 rep.

At the high end of this reputation spectrum there is little difference between users with high reputation and ♦ moderators. That is very much intentional. We don't run Area 51. The community does.

What about my reputation on other Stack Exchange Network sites?

If you have more than 200 reputation on associated accounts on other sites, you'll earn a one-time bonus of 100 reputation, and we'll show your total reputation in your user information. This is an easy way for others to see at-a-glance your achievements across the entire network!

How do I refer users?

If you invite a friend, be sure to use the special referral link in the Share It popup. If the user commits to the site after using your link, we'll record you as the referrer. Make sure they verify their email address, otherwise their commitment won't count.

Why do you call it Area 51?

We like the little aliens.

Who did the artwork?

All illustrations on Area 51 are the work of Terry Colon. Site layout and visual design is by Jin Yang.

I still have more questions!

Check out meta.stackoverflow.com, the Stack Exchange site about Stack Exchange. Somebody may have already asked your question.