On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 8:02 AM, Kannappan Sampath <kntri...@gmail.com> wrote: > I don't agree that we may not make a successful proposal. > > * Firstly, this site, if it ever becomes a reality, will subsume > ask.sagemath.com alright, but not just that. This will help the entire > community of GAP, PARI, Maxima, Singular, Sympy (probably also R, but > cross-validated already handles quite a bit...) users... I have not written > to their sites just yet but certainly this proposal is meant as a Q&A for > computing in the Python ecosystem rather than just Sage. In light of this, I
In fact, as you suggest above, go one further: Python --> "mathematical software" Having such a site, which is like mathoverflow, but for open source math software, sounds attractive (if such a thing does not already exist). > am willing to believe that conservative estimates of KCrisman would probably > go up; probably more than the threshold too... > > So, in my opinion, instead of being too conservative about the possible > failure, we could try and support the proposal and see if we could make > headway into getting this site created. > > -- Kannappan. > > > On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 6:37 PM, kcrisman <kcris...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> > Hello Sage Users: >>>> > >>>> > I proposed a Sage Stack Exchange site for Sage. Please go and follow >>>> > it; >>>> > add example questions and vote up (down) questions that you think >>>> > should be >>>> > on-topic (resp. off-topic) for the upcoming site. >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/70511/sage?referrer=8adE6ec0VyqQCyB1kFgF7g2 >>>> > >>>> > Looking forward to your support and cooperation for the success of >>>> > this >>>> > adventure on Stack Exchange. >>>> > >>>> > /p/s/ I would be soon adding my quota of 5 questions... >>>> >>>> Does one really need an SE site for Sage? What's wrong with >>>> http://ask.sagemath.org/ in your opinion then? >> >> >> >> >> The only real problem with ask.sagemath, as Kannappan says, is the >> spammers. >> >> Advantages: >> * Many people already have SE (e.g., mathoverflow) accounts, and these >> would be connected >> * They handle spam etc. for you >> * Could migrate questions on other SE products to this, or vice versa >> Disadvantage (for some): >> * platform itself not open-source >> Disadvantages: >> * Not connected to previous rep mechanism for ask.sagemath >> * Not connected to previous answers/questions (harder to work on dups, >> etc) >> * Admin privileges etc are not up to Sage >> * "If the site does not get used, it will be deleted." >> * Do we own the data? There is a CC license but is it exportable? >> * Unclear and hard (for us) to reach standards of business. >> >> To me, the last one is the real problem. For instance, at one time "15 >> questions per day on average is a healthy beta" but we definitely did not >> always hit that even in the most halcyon days of ask.sagemath. I'll note >> that http://area51.stackexchange.com/faq seems to have gotten rid of any >> formal requirements, but there are definitely still standards to make it TO >> beta, much less out. Compare the graduated versus not proposals, e.g. >> http://area51.stackexchange.com/?tab=launched >> >> Let's see what it says. Remember, SE is a *business* that wants to drive >> traffic. Not first and foremost to simply have quality Q&A sites. Sage >> doesn't (yet), in my view, have enough traffic to drive this. It could! >> But it doesn't yet. >> >> * 15 questions per day on average is a healthy beta, 5 questions or fewer >> per day needs some work. A healthy site generates lots of good content to >> make sure users keep coming back. >> >> Probably we would need to increase our regular traffic (I mean compared to >> when we didn't have the anti-spam measures in place) by at least 50%. >> >> * 2.5 answers per question is good, only 1 answer per question needs some >> work. On a healthy site, questions receive multiple answers and the best >> answer is voted to the top. >> >> I would argue that with most ask.sagemath questions, we really don't need >> more than one answer per question. But SE doesn't probably care about that. >> And I will also point out that MANY of our questions are quite technical or >> don't ever get answers - see >> http://ask.sagemath.org/questions/?sort=answers-asc&page=6 (though to be >> fair, many of the answers to these are in comments, which SE would strongly >> discourage). >> >> * We recommend: >> 150 users with 200+ rep >> 10 users with 2,000+ rep >> 5 users with 3,000+ rep >> >> Even on the CURRENT ask.sagemath we have about 50 with 200+ rep. We do >> have the requisite number of very-high-rep users, and are likely to continue >> to have. This is mainly because we don't have the critical mass yet - in >> order to really rack up reputation, you either need to answer a LOT of >> questions, or be one of the few people who answers questions interesting to >> a lot of people in the (as yet, smallish) Sage community. Most people who >> answer a question get only one or two up votes, even if the answer is >> correct. >> >> * 90% answered is a healthy beta, 80% answered needs some work. In the >> beta it's especially important that when new visitors ask questions they >> usually get a good answer. >> >> I believe I've already touched on this. We are not currently going to be >> there. >> >> * 1,500 visits per day is good, 500 visits per day needs some work. A >> great site benefits people outside the community. Eventually, 90% of a >> site's traffic should come from search engines. >> >> I don't know anything about this. But based on # of views, which is easy >> to see, it looks like we get between 20 and 50 views for a given question. >> (Older ones get more, of course). Let's say we get 50 views per 10 >> questions - that is 500 visits per day, assuming that's what they mean by >> visits. >> >> On ALL metrics, Sage is not ready for a SE proposal to go anywhere, and >> that would be worse. >> >> Instead, all the people who just committed to the proposal should put on >> their thinking caps to get us a sensible anti-spam measure for our current >> site. >> >> I am not saying this because I am a curmudgeon; I am saying this because I >> just spent the last hour reading through all the many complaints of proposal >> which aren't going to make it out of beta and will have to start from >> scratch, and I don't want that to happen to us. It would only lead to >> confusion for those who actually want help. >> >> - kcrisman >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "sage-devel" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "sage-devel" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- William Stein Professor of Mathematics University of Washington http://wstein.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sage-devel" group. 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