Why was it shut down after only 17 days? Check this out:
only 2.7 questions per day
only 44 visits per day
Our current goal is to to launch the beta site and I’m somewhat concerned that the Research Computing Stack Exchange site won’t perform any better. Does anyone share this concern? How are we going to avoid being shut down after only 17 days like this?
I think this is a valid concern - thanks for asking! However, this is one of the main reasons that we are staging Stack Exchange content on THIS site now! Our goal is to have about 150 questions prepped and ready to go with at least two answers each when the Research Computing Stack Exchange reaches Private Beta, so that we can post an average of 10 questions per day during the 14 day private beta period. This should get us through to Public Beta. Once we reach Public Beta, if we have a good base of questions posted covering a broad range of topics of pertaining to research computing, then it becomes a marketing effort to engage the broader research computing community and hopefully, it takes on a life of its own from there!
150 questions might seem like a lofty goal, but consider that right now, we already have 34 people registered on this site and over 150 questions listed. Even if each person only prepares/posts 5 “well prepped” questions when the Research Computing Stack Exchange reaches private beta, we will exceed the question target! Note that the amount of effort each person will need to expend goes down very rapidly as we grow the community or participants. For example, if each person currently registered can recruit just one person to join the effort, the question-posting burden on each individual goes down to less than 3 questions per person!
What is “well prepped” - well, the most important aspect of prepping the questions is making sure that they are written to conform to “Stack exchange style” so they are accepted by the broader Stack Exchange Community and not down voted, moved or closed. Below are several links about how to ask (and answer) a good stack exchange question. One key point is that the question must be specific, with a fact-based correct answer. Stack exchange is not a place for open ended discussion or answers that are opinion based. A second key point is that the questions should be “expert” questions, not basic questions whose answers can be easily found using google or other means. A final key point is that our questions need to fall into topic areas that are within the Research Computing space.
All of the above is the exact motivation for why we have weekly “Reputathon” zoom meetings on Fridays at 11 am EST (10 AM CST, 9 AM MST, 8AM PST), zoom coordinates below, where we work on editing questions and answers on this site to put them into “Stack Exchange-ready” format, with coaching provided by Aaron Culich from Berkeley, who has vast experience in both Research Computing and Stack Exchange. I hope that anyone reading this will consider joining us on the calls, which are both informative and kind of fun :-). In the interim, please look through the questions posted and answer a few; OR post new questions that are key to your area of research computing. Thanks for reading this long post and feel free to drop me a line at jma@mghpcc.org if you have any questions or suggestions! Thanks again Phil for asking the question!
Best,
Julie Ma
PS One final note - Of course, if our Research Computing site DOES get shut down on Stack Exchange, then we will just remove some of the meta-content that we are using to mark up questions for Stack Exchange, and launch THIS site as our Research Computing Q&A platform!
PPS Here are the links for “How to ask a good question” and “How do I write good answer”
How do I ask a “good” question
How do I write a “good” answer
PPPS Here are the zoom coordinates for the weekly Friday meeting:
Or iPhone one-tap :
US: +19294362866,109970833# or +16699006833,109970833#
Or Telephone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 929 436 2866 or +1 669 900 6833
Meeting ID: 109 970 833
International numbers available: https://zoom.us/zoomconference?m=GRjJNop7DhAHlAAq3a7vO6IeAUpPTNdt
Thanks, Julie! I think I got a little confused and forgot that “beta” actually refers to two distinct phases, private beta and public beta. I knew we’d be seeding the Stack Exchange site with questions we are preparing here in Discourse and now it’s clear to me that this phase is called “private beta” and only people who have committed or been invited by committers can participate. This sort of information is here, for example:
Looking again at the Open Science screenshot I posted, I can tell that they stumbled in the private beta phase. Thanks for making this clear to me.
