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OnStartups is another Stack Exchange site that I've been a particpant (rep 1,451). They've been in beta for over three yeas, but (to my great surprise) I found out that it's closing, and its closing today (Nov 12, 2013).

Take a look at their meta post about the closing. It will give you some more thoughts about what Genealogy & Family History has to do to be successful and get through our beta stage (and we've been in beta now for 13 months) without ultimately suffering the same fate.

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  • It's now Nov 13 and it didn't close yet. Maybe they're being given a reprieve?
    – lkessler
    Nov 14 '13 at 2:28
  • You might want to replace the link to the meta post with this capture from the Internet Archive, that way this discussion will still have the relevant context once the link breaks, assuming it is still closing. A community team member said they just haven't got around to closing it yet.
    – jmort253
    Dec 8 '13 at 4:38
  • @jmort253 - That's a good idea, but only after the link breaks. Until it does, people may still want to go to the live post and comment on it.
    – lkessler
    Dec 8 '13 at 16:20
  • Good idea. At any rate, there's the link for when that happens. Hope this helps.
    – jmort253
    Dec 8 '13 at 20:03
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Thanks for posting this @lkessler! The top rated meta post discussing their closure included this interesting opinion:

Virtually every new question that is asked is eventually put on hold and then rejected, based on the site rules. That implies to me that we aren't giving the community what they want. The community is the one that asks the questions. The community wants web site reviews, product idea reviews, and all the things our rules say we can't offer. We can either give the community what it wants, or fade away.

I feel that this was a large factor in the Library Stack Exchange failure also. I tried to engage with that community and was astounded by the heavy-handedness of the mods. Their narrow concept of what Library Stack Exchange should be did not seem to match the diversity and breadth of what the international library community wanted. I watched them chase away many SE newbies (experts in their fields) that had asked sound questions to real problems. I tried to edit and improve some of the questions, but was chastised for it. After that, I too left. And I AM a librarian :/ pfft

Glad that we seem to have a community that is willing to work to improve questions to ease them into the SE model.

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    Good comment. I think you and the other mods are fairly open minded. Occasionally you might be a little harsh to a newbie, but you still try to be as polite as possible. It's always hard to tell someone new that their first question isn't good, and any bad first impression anyone gets will chase them away. First impressions have to positive for people to stay and participate.
    – lkessler
    Nov 14 '13 at 2:09

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