It's been exactly one year since we launched Super User.
Super User is, of course, our site for power users of traditional computer hardware and software. The types of users who have OSX, Linux, and Windows installed in triple-boot fashion -- and have built their own computers to run it all on.
Super User has had its share of ewokschallenges to contend with, as it is the most broad site in the trilogy, by far. Depending on your interpretation of the topic, anything about computers could be allowed there!
Fortunately, that's not the case now, as we have a satellite of new Stack Exchange sites to support Super User, that we hope will foster and engender communities of their own:
- webapps.stackexchange
- gaming.stackexchange
- wordpress.stackexchange
- webmasters.stackexchange
- ubuntu.stackexchange.com
- gadgets.stackexchange (probably will be reformed as apple.se / android.se)
It's our hope that those who love these specific topics will be able to find other like-minded users, so the Super Users themselves can be free to carry on with their indecent love of traditional computing in all its keyboard and mouse-y glory.
And despite being the wild west of topic areas, requiring a nearly superhuman moderation staff …
… Super User has done amazingly well, growing by leaps and bounds while maintaining (at least in my humble opinion) the typically excellent level of quality you'll find on any Stack Exchange 2.0 network website.
So it's time to celebrate.
For the next month, we'll be conducting a Super User Super Contesttm.
Four weeks, four winners each week, and the fabulous prizes are appropriately super-user-y.
- The best rookie performance of a new user in that week, as measured by the Super User leagues, will receive a 32 GB USB key.
- The highest reputation produced in that week, as measured by the Super User leagues, will receive a 22" LCD monitor.
- The "most awesome" new Super User question or answer that week, that most embodies the type of Q&A; that make the site great -- as judged by the Super User community moderators -- will receive a two bay NAS device.
- The most useful Meta Super User question or answer of the week -- as judged by the Super User community moderators -- gets a Super User t-shirt and stickers.
Update 8/25/10: friend of Super User, Jon Tackabury of Binary Fortress Software, generously offered to contribute a free license to DisplayFusion Pro for every winner as well! Thanks Jon for your support of the SU community!
The contest starts right now, as of the publish date on this blog post, but the four weekly awards will be announced on Meta Super User on these dates:
- Monday, August 30th -- winners announced
- Monday, September 6th -- winners announced
- Monday, September 13th -- winners announced
- Monday, September 20th -- winners announced
(edit: moved dates from Saturday to Monday so the full week is counted.)
Now get over to Super User and ask great questions and provide killer answers, same as every other day!
A few rules, then:
- You must have a registered Super User account in good standing, with a valid email address, to be eligible.
- Contest open to every man, woman, and child on planet Earth, except those men, women, or children living in places where contests like this are somehow illegal -- or the relevant contest laws in your jurisdiction are so obnoxious that awarding the prize becomes impractical.
- Moderators of any kind are not eligible to win, because they will be judging parts of the contest. But they won't be left out in the cold, either: we'll be sending our community mods a little thank you prize as well, for everything they've done. You guys rock!
- You cannot win the same category twice during the duration of the contest. So if you're the top reputation user for weeks #2 and #3, for week #3 we will award that prize to the next user in the weekly reputation league.
- You cannot win two prizes in the same week.
- If you live in an area of the world where it is logistically impossible for us to get your prize to you — like, say, because your nearest computer hardware store is 3000 nautical miles away — we’ll do our best to work with you and make it happen.
- We will try to be as fair as possible, but all of our judgments are final and binding.
Happy first birthday, Super User, hopefully first of many more to come. And most of all, thanks to everyone who has participated on Super User. It's because of you that the site works at all!
So let us celebrate, fellow ewoks, our glorious ongoing battle against the Death Star of terrible phpBB computer forums, by singing that stupid Ewok Celebration song together!