16

The subtitle for the site mentions "operations research and analytics educators, researchers, and professionals." I would like to open the doors a bit wider, to include students (and yes, I know some of them will be looking to outsource their homework) and people who are curious about OR. When Mike Trick built OR Exchange, my impression was that he was hoping lay people who had somehow tripped over some aspect or mention of OR would come to find out more. I think it is both desireable and appropriate to have a site where someone could ask a question such as "Can OR help me schedule my employees better?".

Proposal: Operations Research and Analytics

2
  • 2
    Do we need a strategy for attracting users of other Stack Exchange sites with 200+ rep to commit to the ORaA site? It seems like the relatively small community interested in our site also does not use other Stack Exchange sites currently.
    – alerera
    Apr 9, 2019 at 19:21
  • @alerera I just posted about this: area51.meta.stackexchange.com/q/28637/201238
    – LarrySnyder610
    Apr 13, 2019 at 1:15

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
8

I like the idea of adding students to the list.

As for people who are curious, the reason I left folks like that out is that when you are filling out the field about the audience, Stack Exchange gives you a little popup that says something like:

You should be proposing a site for pilots, not passengers; for chefs, not diners; for app designers, not app users. We are building sites for experts, who will form the backbone of the community. The idea is that if we build the site for experts, the enthusiasts will follow.

I'm getting the wording somewhat wrong (I can't access it now) but this is the general idea.

But, I think students count as "experts" and we can include them in the audience list.

4
  • I just looked at Math StackExchange, and there's no subtitle there. So I guess what you filled in for audience is not visible to visitors (and hence would not scare off newbies). Might not be a bad idea to add students to the field (if you can still edit it), since we need them to come vote. :-)
    – prubin
    Apr 1, 2019 at 18:18
  • @prubin the audience blurb shows up in the list of sites at stackexchange.com/sites# if you click on a site. Or in the list at area51.stackexchange.com. So I think it will be visible. I'll add students.
    – LarrySnyder610
    Apr 2, 2019 at 2:17
  • 1
    @LarrySnyder610 Actually, I don't think that the "big question" (aka, elephant in the room) is whether "students" should be included in the proposal's description or not [anybody can join, there's little to be done about that] -- but: how to deal with (more or less obvious) "homework questions" (and how to phrase the regarding section of the -- hopefully to be authored -- site's FAQ)?
    – fbahr
    Apr 2, 2019 at 18:20
  • 1
    @fbahr I agree. Of course, whether or not students will read the FAQ and/or abide by the guidelines there is another story. I have found on other SE sites that it's often obvious when something is a HW question and answerers are often good about calling this out. But it is definitely an issue we will want to be vigilant about.
    – LarrySnyder610
    Apr 2, 2019 at 18:34

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .