There is a recent message about Octoprint Nanny, when I access their website I am redirected to a beta sign in. Is this vaporware? Is it functional?
It is not vaporware, but is still being actively developed. Sign up for beta and eventually you'll get access from what I've been told by the plugin author in Discord.
I did! Have not heard anything yet. Why are we getting the Octoprint message for the unavailable plug in? Is it a phishing expedition to find out how much interest there is? When I filled out the form I got the sense they were looking for commercial/industrial applications.
It is available, it's just in early stages. The same thing happened for OctoEverywhere, its a single person that is running a self hosted server for the AI side of things, and they are being careful not to overload the system by slowly adding users and server resources along the way.
The OctoPrint message is automatic, happens whenever there is a new plugin. Usually these are available straight away, and while you could technically install it now, you need the account (as you found). Makes life far easier for people to install from the plugin repository, than manually distributing it. Not a big deal IMO but we will see how good it is when it comes out of private beta.