Proposal: Craft CMS
I'll be the first to admit that I was pessimistic about this proposal making it to beta. For about 10 minutes I even had a conversation about it on Twitter with @brandonkelly from Pixel and Tonic.
I was passing judgment because I remember what it took to get the EESE to beta and the fact that Craft is newer and has a smaller community etc.
With that said, do you think Craft Exchange will make it to beta?
Yes.
I've been using Stack Exchange for a while, and I've attempted to embrace Google+ because that's where the Craft community is centralized for Q&A. Stack Exchange is a far better platform for elevating high-quality questions and answers, and I think one excellent platform is deserving of the other.
The purely objective science supporting my answer:
Google+ membership has apparently more than tripled since Craft's official launch one year ago—a fact pointed out by Lindsey D.
Immediately after talking with Brandon it dawned on me why it would actually make the cut.
You see, there is a large minority of users who are coming from the ExpressionEngine StackExchange; 32.4% at the time of writing. All of whom recently went through the Area 51 process and know how to make this a viable SE site. This same group of people, when hitting the commitment stage on EESE, didn't have any rep on any other SE sites either but, now have quite a bit.
That being said, the jump start we're getting because of that fact is going to propel the Craft CMS right through most stages of Area 51.
In roughly 24 hours Craft CMS not only blew through the definition phase but, also reached 34% commitment. This, by the way, was done on a Friday afternoon and to a lesser extent on a Saturday morning (today.)
It's understandable why someone who's never heard of Craft or it's backstory might not see us getting this site off the ground though, that's pretty much the same thing they said about EESE when it was first proposed (actually, it was the third time it was proposed, if I remember right but, the first time there was a true community push.)
The EESE beta site is going strong to this day. 561 days in beta with okay to excellent stats; not bad if I do say so myself. The difference between that SE site and the Craft SE site now is that we already know how this game works.
Now, I'm not saying it's going to be easy. It may be easier to get to private beta for sure but, to get out of private beta? This is where the rubber meets the road in my opinion.
That being said, we'll need to all band together, ready our game faces because when the SE moderators start badgering us with their "challenges", to prove Craft Exchange will be a viable SE site, we'll really need to be ready for them!
someone who's never heard of Craft – That surely includes me, as I’ve just started to read up on it around and about 10 minutes ago. Anyway… looking at the powerful start this proposal was able to pull off, I surely wish the proposal (later: beta) all the best. I’m sure many of us have seen worse proposals… and I for my part wouldn’t mind having stumbled upon a potentially usable CMS that comes with a fitting SE site to go with it. Who knows? Maybe today is my lucky day. ;)