We’ve been busy gutting the core of OSQA for several weeks, but I believe the results will prove that it was worth it.

We’ve made some really big changes in how the community information is represented by the database back-end, and we think we have completely removed all the direct SQL calls which were sprinkled throughout the original CNProg codebase we started with. Removing the direct SQL was especially important because it may allow us to make progress towards another major goal we hope to reach (but I won’t announce anything until it works!)

Anyway, we plan to work on lots of smaller (hopefully easier to address) issues after we roll out the overhauled code this coming week. We’ve asked people to share their pet peeves about OSQA, and knowing the “features” that irritate our users most should help us identify some high priority targets to focus on. If you want to, share your pet peeve on meta.osqa.net.

It has been a busy week since Joel Spolksy and Jeff Atwood announced their StackExchange 2.0 plan and created fear and uncertainty among supporters of their original plan. In a sympathetic reaction, we decided to offer “refuge” to those who were rightly concerned their sites might soon shut down or that they would have to give ownership of their sites to Joel and Jeff. Most of them probably felt blindsided, and we were, too.

We happened to be in the middle of a major reorganization of the core database structure in OSQA, structure the project had inherited from the original CNProg. We knew there would be problems in the new code, but we have come a long way with a “deploy early, deploy often” strategy and a commitment to finding and fixing bugs quickly. We expected to just push the new code live and deal with issues as they came up.

Suddenly the spotlight was on OSQA as if we were in a race to win over disaffected StackExchange users. People began wanting feature comparisons and reviews and opinions that are, frankly, premature and of questionable value. I want to set the record straight: we have no intention of taking potshots at other projects, and we feel the entire online dialogue about StackExchange 2.0 and the alternatives is overheated. To quote Douglas Adams, “Don’t Panic!”

OSQA is on-track to become a killer solution. Although the original CNProg may have started out as an effort to clone StackOverflow, I can assure you that we have no such limits to our ambition. We’re here to create the most useful, versatile, reliable, adaptable Q&A community engine on the planet. We are still accelerating, and we certainly don’t intend to stop when we achieve feature parity with whatever Joel and Jeff have cooked up. The world of possibilities is so much more interesting than StackExchange, and anyone can see where we’re headed just by looking at our Jira issue tracker.

OSQA will be unique and excellent, and OSQA users will not be disappointed. That’s a promise you can count on.

Today we deployed a major revision of OSQA which unifies the way questions, answers and comments are represented in the back-end database. Previously these entities were stored in separate, but similar, database tables. Now they are all stored together in a single table with a common structure.

With the new, unified version we can search more quickly and reliably, and we can manage revisions more consistently. It also makes new features possible like “promote an answer into a question” since sometimes people have been known to answer questions with questions! Another useful case will probably “convert an answer into a comment” for posts that really don’t qualify as answers, per se.

Anyone upgrading an existing OSQA site will need to perform some data migration steps. We have included migration scrips for South which will should make this relatively simple, but PLEASE backup your database before starting!

Reviewing our Google Analytics data for osqa.net today, we noticed an interesting fact about the browsers our visitors are using. Only 5% are using IE, not even twice the number using Opera, and only one sixth the number using Chrome. It’s not because everyone’s using Mac and Linux, either – 64% are on Windows.

Thanks to the hard work of Evgeny and Hernani, we have just completed the first successful import and migration of a StackExchange site into OSQA. About an hour ago we successfully imported a StackExchange data dump and brought HomeschoolHelpDesk.com online with OSQA.

The import appears to have preserved users, badges, question, answers, votes and even revisions! Clicking around it feels like the whole site is there, and it feels crisp and fast. HomeschoolHelpDesk.com is a small site compared to some of the really active StackExchange sites, so we still have some distance to go before we can say this feature is rock solid.

It sure is nice to have the first one completed successfully, however. I am reminded that the Wright brothers first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet. They must have enjoyed that one, too!

There is nothing wrong with your screen. We have taken control! No, seriously, we have just moved the former osqa.net site to a new, permanent location:

meta.osqa.net

If you had an account on the former osqa.net, then you still have an account on meta.osqa.net. Since most of you use a Google OpenID, however, there is a minor snag that we’re working on. You’ll need to complete a short account recovery process to get logged back in. We’ll be sending details via email (for those who actually provided an email address.)