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A mod, @AbbyTMiller (note that the link redirects to the area 51 site because the site is closed), just now answered a question I asked on the Gamification Meta site before it closed.

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The link appeared in my inbox, and I clicked on it, and was surprised to find that I was able to view the question and answer, even though the site has been closed for a while.

I am wondering why:

  • A mod answered a meta question after the site was closed and the site was no longer accessible (Or so I thought)
  • The site is still viewable with the no-redirect=1 query parameter in the URL.

Note that I added the and tags to this question only because I was required to add at least one.

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  • I am wondering what the heck is with that message.
    – doppelgreener
    Commented Nov 14, 2013 at 2:26

1 Answer 1

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When we shut down a site, we don't immediately delete all the database records and burn all the microfilm. It's still kinda useful, at least for a little while:

  • Any links to questions that were migrated to other sites need the information to redirect properly. This isn't usually a concern for sites that never made it out of private beta, but...
  • A data dump needs to be produced. Sometimes, that doesn't quite go smoothly and it needs to be produced again.
  • Sometimes, questions need to be migrated elsewhere. For instance, Gamification had 10 questions flagged when we shut it down, with folks requesting that they be migrated to CogSci. I did this after the site was shut down and the data-dump generated, because otherwise they would have been missing from the archive!
  • Probably other things. Better safe than sorry.

During this time, employees still have the option to log in and poke around as need-be (for instance, to migrate questions). Abby apparently didn't know this, and was delighted to find herself with an opportunity to join you in bidding farewell to the site.

In the future, we might want to disable notifications originating on closed sites, to prevent this sort of confusion.

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  • 1
    MONTHS LATER, she realized this question was here, and added: Yup, this is all true. I was told the site was supposed to be in read-only mode and wrote a nonsense answer to test that. Imagine my surprise when I was able to post it!
    – hairboat Staff
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 15:29

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