Help take mi.yodeya to the next level!

UPDATE (Nov. 20, 2010):

Thanks to your help, mi.yodeya's StackExchange proposal completed the Definition phase and is now in the Commitment phase! The instructions below have been updated accordingly. Please take one or two more simple steps to help us move forward.

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It's time for mi.yodeya to become part of the StackExchange network. If you're really interested in what this means, read this post to the bottom, and click on the interesting links. If you just want to do your part to help out, just read the first  section.

Please do this

If you enjoy mi.yodeya, please take a minute or two and do the following things:

1. Go here and create an account on Area51, the incubator where new StackExchange network sites are proposed.
2. Go here and click "Follow" to show that you care about the upgrade of mi.yodeya.
3. (Still here) Cast as many votes as you can for listed questions that you think are good examples of appropriate questions for mi.yodeya, good examples of off-topic questions, or not good examples of anything.
4. (Still here, OPTIONAL) If your favorite existing mi.yodeya questions are not on the list at the Area51 proposal, copy some in.
5. Go here and click "Commit" to indicate that you intend to participate in the new version of mi.yodeya. 
   
6. (Still here, OPTIONAL) Click on "Share this" near the top-left to encourage your friends to take a look and help us out.

When we get enough followers and votes on questions, we'll be able to move forward with migration. There's also a snowball effect, in which the more followers a proposal has, the more attention it will get from other people. 

When we get enough commitments, we'll get our site on the new platform. There's also a snowball effect, in which the more commitments a proposal has, the more attention it will get from other people. So if you do these short tasks, you'll be helping us a great deal toward our goal.

That's all you have to read if you're not that interested in the details.

Benefits

Here are some of the benefits we'll get when we migrate into the network:

• Mi.yodeya will continue serving the community indefinitely, at no cost to anyone involved.
• Cross-promotion with a whole bunch of high-quality Q&A sites on a variety of interesting topics, which will bring in many more community members and readers.
• Upgraded site technology, which means that some things will work better, and you'll see some new features. They're also continually adding new features and improvements to sites in the network.
• A separate meta site explicitly set aside for questions about the site.
• (Eventually) A professional graphic design to make mi.yodeya look more snazzy.
• (Eventually) Transition from autocratic rule by the Founder and Administrator to democratic rule by an elected group of Moderators from within the community.

Don't worry

• Mi.yodeya will not be migrated to the new platform without warning.
• When we migrate, we'll still be able to find our favorite Q&A site for Jewish life and learning at mi.yodeya.com.
• All questions and answers on mi.yodeya will be transferred to the new site.
• Your mi.yodeya user account will be transferred to the new site.

History

When mi.yodeya started, it was on a platform now called "StackExchange 1.0." The people who made StackOverflow, the wildly popular computer programming Q&A site made their technology available for anyone who wanted to make a similar site with the following deal:

• Anyone can make a new site about the topic of their choice.
• For the first few months, no one would have to pay.
• When StackExchange came out of beta, all site owners would have to pay, on the order of at least $100 per month.
• Site owners would have full, autocratic control of what goes on on their sites, and full ownership of the content.

Then, just as I was starting to figure out whom I could submit a grant application to for the thousands of dollars I'd need to keep mi.yodeya going for a couple of years, StackExchange came up with a new business model, called StackExchange 2.0. The new deal is:

• New sites are created using a public incubation process to ensure that only sites that lots of people are going to use will be created.
• All sites are owned by StackExchange, but are controlled by their communities, represented by elected moderators.
• All content on StackExchange sites is licensed for sharing under cc-wiki.
• No one has to pay for anything.
• Existing StackExchange 1.0 sites that had enough traffic at the time (such as mi.yodeya) would continue to exist for free and under their owners' control until at least April 2011. After that, there's no guarantee.
• We can migrate existing StackExchange 1.0 sites to the StackExchange 2.0 network by proposing a site on Area51 specifically for that purpose.

Future

Here's what's going to happen:

1. Mi.yodeya will continue to operate in its current form until the incubation process for the new version is complete.
2. When the proposal for the StackExchange 2.0 version of mi.yodeya gets enough followers and upvotes on example questions, it will move to the Commitment phase. Everyone who signed up as a follower will get an email asking them to commit (beli neder!) to participate on the new site once it's created. DONE!
3. When enough people have committed to the new site, they'll create a StackExchange 2.0 beta site for us and migrate all of our content and community members from our current site into the new site.
4. I'll let everyone know, then transfer the domain name mi.yodeya.com to the new site.
5. They'll close the StackExchange 1.0 version of mi.yodeya.
6. After a few months, the new site will graduate from beta, and StackExchange will hire a graphic designer to make it look prettier.

If you have any questions about any of this, please contact Isaac at info@yodeya.com.