We're launching the Server Fault private beta tonight. What is Server Fault?
Server Fault is for system administrators and IT professionals, people who manage or maintain computers in a professional capacity. If you are in charge of ...
- servers
- networks
- many desktop PCs (other than your own)
... then you're in the right place to ask your question! Well, as long as the question is about your servers, your networks, or your desktops, anyway.
In other words, it is exactly like Stack Overflow, but instead of being a community for programmers, it's a community for sysadmins and IT pros.
We are seeding the beta with programmers who also happen to be sysadmins. The private beta is open to any interested Stack Overflow users with reputation scores of 100 or higher; to get started, simply go to serverfault.com and provide this password:
alt.sysadmin.recovery
Yes, this is a reference to the alt.sysadmin.recovery FAQ, which is absolutely hilarious.
Once you've entered the password, log in normally using your existing OpenID. As a Stack Overflow user in good standing, you will get a few Server Fault new account perks: all your user information will be transferred over automatically, and an initial reputation bonus of 101 points added.
(note that if you use Google OpenID exclusively, there may be an issue with the OpenID string that is returned for a different domain, so please try our workaround.)
For feedback purposes, we have also set up a Server Fault uservoice site, and a Server Fault team email address. Just like on Stack Overflow, these are both linked from the bottom of every page on the site.
If you'd like to be a part of the Server Fault beta, but do not have a Stack Overflow account with 100 or more rep, then do this:
- Sign up for an OpenID if you do not have one already; we continue to recommend myopenid.
- Send a request to team@serverfault.com with your OpenID URL.
Once we have your OpenID we'll add it to the beta list and you'll be able to log in, but you will not get the reputation bonus that existing Stack Overflow users get. (Note that requests without an OpenID URL will not be honored, so please make sure you have an OpenID URL before requesting access!)
We don't expect major problems since the site is based on the now-mature Stack Overflow codebase -- but if you do encounter beta issues, please let us know via the Server Fault uservoice site linked on the bottom of every page!
The private beta should run for about 1 to 2 weeks. Have fun, and feel free to forward this private beta information to any sysadmins or IT pros you think might be interested; everyone is welcome!