Our core functionality, as always, is Q&A; -- asking great questions and providing great answers. You could certainly go months or years without ever needing to visit anything beyond the main site. But that'd be a shame.
Chat - Our Third Place
Did you know that real time web chat is a standard "out of the box" feature on every Q&A; site we launch? Not just any old generic web chat, either -- we built our third place from scratch to be a best-of-breed next generation chat system. We now have what is, in my not so humble opinion, the best web chat software I've ever seen or used. Really! You should check it out.
To visit chat, simply click on the chat link in the header:
Or, on some sites, we have a live preview of two chat rooms in the sidebar; click through to visit and start chatting.
But it doesn't matter what I think. Everyone should check chat out for themselves and decide if it's worthy or not. That's why we introduced the Talkative badge.
Posted 10 messages, with 1 or more starred, in chat
To earn this badge, you'll need to post 10 chat messages in a room -- and one of them must be starred by another fellow chat user user. Go be interesting!
Area 51 - Our New Site Creation Zone
Did you know that the reputation you earn on a Stack Exchange site is good for more than additional privileges on the site? That's right. The more reputation you have in our network, the more weight you also carry on Area 51 -- our new Q&A; site creation zone. The democratic, open community process defined at Area 51 is the only way to create new sites on our engine -- just like it says in the FAQ.
The success of this community process depends, as they all do, on participation. We've also found that our Q&A; sites work best when they are led by experienced users with reputation in one or more existing Stack Exchange sites. That's why commitments by experienced users are weighted so heavily on Area 51, and why we introduced the Precognitive badge.
Followed the Area 51 proposal for this site before it entered the commitment phase
This badge, like Area 51 itself, is all about the future. To achieve this badge, you'll have to follow an early Area 51 site proposal that eventually succeeds and go to beta -- hopefully with your active assistance. In other words, the only way to earn the Precognitive badge on a site is ... before the site even exists! Spooky, right?
Enjoy these new badges -- as always, we welcome feedback on chat and feedback on Area 51, but you'll need to find them first!