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Proposal: Libraries & Information Science

If one looks at Libraries & Information Science it seems to me that this proposal already have abundant numbers of committed people with 510 already. 87.3% of the commiters to this proposal are only committed to this one. That means that there are up to 445 committers that are just waiting for this proposal to come through so they can start their Stack Exchange career. There is also a huge percentage of them that claim that they are experts (roughly 50% of those that responded to this question).

Why can't this proposal just get launched?

I should say that I am not interested in this proposal, but I would really like to see more librarians active on other Stack Exchanges, they would really contribute something good, I believe.

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    Stack Exchange may be experimenting with the beta site thresholds. The SmugMug proposal is now in Beta but I don't think it had reached 100 committers with at least 200 reputation on an existing site although it was close. However, the total number committed was higher (over 600).
    – moberley
    Jan 27, 2012 at 19:18
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    When/if one of my commits frees up, I suppose I'll help game the system by being one of the 200+ rep committers, despite having nothing to do with libraries and IS besides having a fondness for my research librarians.
    – Fomite
    Jan 27, 2012 at 20:09
  • I'm not sure why no-one mentioned this before, but this question is effectively a duplicate of Surely 50 users with 200+ rep on somewhere else would be enough? and Robert Cartaino's answer there explains why experienced stack exchange users are important.
    – Mark Booth
    Apr 19, 2012 at 13:56

3 Answers 3

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There are over 30 members committed to the proposal who have 5k+ global reputation, 7 of those users are moderators on at least one other Stack Exchange site.

So we have a strong selection of members already experienced in moderating a new site, as well as the 146+ committed users who would describe themselves as a "professional or expert" in the subject.

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  • I think you underestimate how many people you need who are well versed in how stack exchange sites work in order to get a site running well. If anything, the more inexperienced users you have the more experienced users you need. Otherwise the stack exchange culture won't develop and the beta will most likely fail.
    – Mark Booth
    May 2, 2012 at 11:58
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    Mark: I think you underestimate how many people are experienced with how the sites work because they were active on the white-label Unshelved Answers. If reputation had imported, this thing would have launched back in 2010; the delay is more likely to kill the beta than the experienced/inexperienced ratio is.
    – M. Alan Thomas II
    May 2, 2012 at 22:59
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Click on the “more info” link in the “Commitment” box on the right. Only 68 people who have enough experience on Stack Exchange have committed to this proposal. (Enough experience being defined as having at least 200 reputation on at least one existing site.)

The reason why a number of people with Stack Exchange experience is required is that questions and answers sites are somewhat unusual; most people are used to free-form discussion forums. There have to be enough people who know the ropes from day 1 and can help others along.

This does make it more difficult to launch sites that are somewhat removed from existing sites.

My advice would be to advertise the Libraries proposal to users of related sites. Ok, none are very close, but English, Writers and Literature should have a few users with some interest in library and information science. Participate there, put a link to the proposal in your profile, mention it in a comment if discussions ever turn to the topic of libraries, post a link to it in chat rooms, …

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  • Thank you for your answer. Your answer is, of course, correct, but how many experienced users does it really take to make a site behave? I believe three vivid and experienced users could do it. Maybe they would need an extended private beta time, to get the site cleaned up but out of those 68 there has to be at least three vivid and experienced users. If not, then a moderator could always step in and do a bit of work.
    – David
    Jan 27, 2012 at 0:19
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    @David SE staff knows that the current system is not satisfactory, but the difficulty is finding something that works. I think the current requirement is too high, but yours is too low. Keep in mind that not all 68 will actually participate in the beta.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jan 27, 2012 at 0:33
  • Well, the three users I was referring to was not proposal for a requirement, but more of a best case scenario. Maybe it would take 7-8 on average, so lets say 15 to be sure. But, of course, as you said, not all of the 68 will participate at all, so lets multiply by four, that's 60. Then the moderators, could always step in if needed, or Stack Exchange could try to hire experienced users for a few weeks, until the inexperienced users have gotten some experience.
    – David
    Jan 27, 2012 at 0:43
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One thing some of the committers could do is get involved with some of the other sites. Get your 200 rep on one of them to help bring up that number.

Some great Tangents might be:

  • The Workplace - A place for questions about work environment and workplace issues
  • Philosophy - This SE could really use some good questions and answers. This is a QA about Philosophic study rather than a place for doing Philosophy
  • Skeptics - A great community with a unique rule set that requires all questions be based on notable claims, and all answers be thoroughly referenced.
  • English Language - Questions about words, their origin and word choice.
  • Writers
  • Academia

Or any of the other SE's. This will help you learn to use the SE system and help your community build a stronger base when it launches.

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