holmanb
Out of curiousity, I dropped [https://topanswers.xyz/tex](/tex) in my browser to see what's happening on the private beta over there.  Since I hadn't requested access, I unsurprisingly didn't get in.  

The thing that DID surprise me however, was that I was presented with the beautiful error string below.

```
ERROR: invalid room CONTEXT: PL/pgSQL function _error(integer,text) line 1 at RAISE SQL function "login_room" statement 3 SQL function "login_community" statement 1 
```

Perhaps we could have something a bit nicer than an error string?

**Here are a couple of ideas, ordered from "most reasonable to least reasonable":**
- present the user with a "request access" page if they are logged in
- point the user to a question on Meta where they can request access in chat
- just present a static webpage saying that the page is not yet out of beta
- leave it as is, people likely won't try to access beta sites, and it isn't a high priority
Top Answer
Jack Douglas
Definitely off-putting, thanks for drawing attention to this. We've added a landing page for private beta communities as suggested.

> * just present a static webpage saying that the page is not yet out of beta

We've chosen this option for now, with a link to the meta chat room where access can be manually requested. We might well refine this at some point with a more specific link to information about the particular community, and I'll update this post when that happens.
Answer #2
Strong Mad
I was just recommend to come to top answers and check out the private beta for TeX and I got the same page. I knew I wouldn't get into the site, but that was a pretty off putting message. I was really expecting some sort of directions of how to get access. It would be nice to have something more than just the error page. You almost lost me, a somewhat tech competent individual, to the void because of the error page.

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