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I recently noticed a website, discuss.codechef.com with Q&A and competitions that is based in India. Instantly, I notice that it looks almost identical to an SE site:

codechef questions codechef user profile

I am curious if this is a blatant knock-off site or if it uses the SE engine? I was unable to find any mentions of StackExchange in their About section. Also, SO has the codechef tag, , so it would be horrible on their part to simply copy the site's design...

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  • You mean its not part of so already? Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 8:30
  • For a list of other Q&A engines similar to StackExchange, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… Commented Nov 29, 2015 at 12:06

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The double diamonds (and the radio buttons near the search bar) kind of imply it's based on http://www.osqa.net/

Further, it says: "Powered by OSQA" at the bottom.

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  • It looks like OSQA is a knock off of SE... Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 6:33
  • Yup - was just doing to add that @Mr.Wizard :) Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 6:33
  • @AustinHenley Well - it's meant to be an OS alternative to the SE sites... It's not really actively supported though - the company that developed it appears to be trying to sell integrated help sites and stuff - plus it's quite buggy - I've had a play with it, but can't say I was overly impressed... Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 6:35
  • As you can see on their list of websites that use OSQA, it is more than just an alternative. Several sites have "overflow" or "exchange" in the name. Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 6:37
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There are two easy ways to know if a site belongs to the Stack Exchange network.

  1. Any genuine Stack Exchange site will have the Stack Exchange™ MultiCollider SuperDropdown™ (aka "global inbox") on the top left on any page: (example for site with its own domain which is part of the network)

enter image description here

  1. Any genuine Stack Exchange site will appear in the "All Sites" list.

The site you mentioned fails both the above so it's not using the Stack Exchange engine and not part of the network.

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  • I know it isn't part of the network. I was asking if it uses the engine. Previously, I have read that they sell the engine. Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:24
  • @Austin oh, thought you meant if it's genuine site. They don't "sell" the engine, they expose public API that let you fetch data from it, after getting a key, then use it under specific terms. Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:36
  • No, they sell (or sold) an enterprise edition of the engine. However, I read that those aren't public anyways so that can't be it either! Commented Apr 3, 2013 at 7:50
  • @AustinHenley you are right, but the "white label service" was discontinued soon after its introduction in 2009-2010, according to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_Exchange#History Commented Nov 29, 2015 at 12:06

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