Site News

Since Ask Different was originally conceived, the community consensus has been to not allow questions about Apple’s beta operating systems.

The times, however, they are a changing.

Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Photo/Art: David Gahr/Handout from http://www.capitalberg.com/

I have just updated the answer that we normally update once Apple finalizes their next OS release and releases it to the general public. Are iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan questions OK? Basically, YES – just because a question is about beta iOS 9 builds or beta OS X builds, it isn’t automatically off-topic.

There are clearly both downsides and upsides to hosting questions about beta software. I fully expect the community to require these questions be of high quality with adequate detail so that users running non beta software won’t be confused by these posts.

The thread used to measure the consensus contains a majority of votes for “yes” make public betas on-topic:

Should beta OS questions be on-topic due to NDA changes + widening distribution by Apple

Please comment here or on Ask Different Meta if you have any concerns or compliments about this change. Should the consensus shift, we can revisit this change – in the mean time, fire up some Dylan and let Ask Different help you with answers to your beta Apple questions.

This community blog has shared some great articles in the past and the time to revive it draws nigh.

I have some post ideas in mind and will commit to write a post every other week for two months to help kick things off if better content or ideas don’t surface. Please use the comments to suggest ideas for a longer form article or anecdotes that might be of interest to the readers of Ask Different.

This week the Apple universe is filled with hints about an impending iPad 3 announcement, speculation around what incredible product developments are next, and serene celebrations of Steve Jobs’ birthday. Needless to say, it’s an exciting time for Apple and Ask Different.

In our own corner of the Apple world, we want to honor you, the community, who dare to take a deeper look. Apple users around the universe continue to resolve their inquiries by referring to the comprehensive body of knowledge you are creating here. We thank you on our behalf and theirs.

This week, people who write 5 posts (questions and/or answers) and share those 5 posts (on Twitter, Google+, or Facebook) will receive Ask Different gift swag (shirts, stickers…) and will be entered into a raffle for an iPod Touch.

Eligibility/details:

Thank you again for continuing to create this incredible community. If you have any input, suggestions or musings about current, past or future site promotions or anything ping me anywhere.

The Ask Different 2012 community moderator election has been underway for the past two weeks, and yesterday the polls finally came to a close. We had many qualified candidates in this election, and three very capable moderators have been elected.

The winners are:

Jason Salaz unsuccessfully ran for moderator last year, but since then has been actively involved with Ask Different, is one of the regular hosts of the Ask Different Podcast, and is all around a great asset to the community.

Daniel holds the record on Ask Different for the greatest number of helpful moderator flags. In a lot of ways, he’s been performing the role of moderator for months, at least now he has the diamond to prove it.

Mike is the most prolific Ask Different member, and he also has the highest reputation score. Deservedly so – I’ve come to realize that there’s very little about Apple products that he doesn’t know, and I’m glad to have him on board the moderation team.

Congratulations! I look forward to working with the three of them, as well as Nathan Greenstein, in making Ask Different even more awesome. Members of the site feel free to ping any one of us in chat if you have any questions or issues.

On August 17, 2010, exactly one year ago today, Ask Different (then called Apple) launched into private beta.

In the past year we’ve seen phenomenal growth. We now have:

• 7k questions
• 13.5k answers
• 9k users
• 13.5k visits per day (average)

I just wanted to say a big “thanks” to everyone that has helped us get here today, from the people that believed in the potential of this site when it was only an Area 51 proposal, to those early adopters that helped make our private and public betas successful, culminating in our launch as a full, permanent part of Stack Exchange earlier this year, to Jin, our site designer who perfectly captured the balance between Apple’s and Stack Exchange’s design aesthetic, and finally to our loyal users, who have been tirelessly helping to answer nearly any question thrown their way.

Here’s to many years to come!

p.s. – you early adopters should start to see your yearling badges soon!