[yt-dev] Asking questions on StackOverflow

[Sam Skillman]

Okay so I think I've switched my opinion on using scicomp here, primarily
based on the discussion here:
http://meta.scicomp.stackexchange.com/questions/338/can-scicomp-stackexchange-be-used-for-project-specific-questions/339#339

The main point is -- if the questions are general in nature, i.e. "what
would be a good way to visualize/analyze this data in this way" would be
great, but questions of "i'm having a problem using feature X in frontend
Y" would not be appropriate. Personally, I can imagine many more very
yt-specific questions being asked as opposed to big picture, but maybe i'm
wrong.  I'd say we just start using stack overflow and see how it shakes
out.

If we're game, I'd say we ask a few planted questions and answer them
ourselves, and if a question comes up on a mailing list that is answered on
SO, then point to it.

Sam


On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 12:27 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk at gmail.com>wrote:

> Alright, so I guess we're in sort-of agreement?  What's next?  Do we
> want to just skip the main site, try for SciComp, encourage people
> (and even ask/answer questions ourselves) and start following the tag?
>
> On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 12:17 PM, Sam Skillman <samskillman at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > I'd be happy to reach out to the sci comp folks. They field questions
> for a
> > few other codes so it may be a good fit.
> >
> > I'm a +1 on trying it out. It also has the added benefit of a rewards
> > structure.
> >
> > Sam
> >
> > On Nov 17, 2013 11:11 AM, "Nathan Goldbaum" <nathan12343 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Didn't realize one needs very high reputation to create a new tag - I
> >> guess that makes sense though.
> >>
> >> While fragmentation is bad, I'd argue that StackOverflow's high google
> >> ranking negates that somewhat.
> >>
> >> Are there any SO users with high reputations who might be interested in
> >> creating the tag?
> >>
> >> Barring that, the scicomp beta exchange is also probably a good fit.
> >>
> >> On Sunday, November 17, 2013, Matthew Turk wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Hi Nathan,
> >>>
> >>> On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 12:01 AM, Nathan Goldbaum <
> nathan12343 at gmail.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>> > Hi all,
> >>> >
> >>> > I recently subscribed to the [yt] tag on StackExchange.  Now,
> whenever
> >>> > a
> >>> > question is asked using this tag on any StackExchange site, I will
> get
> >>> > an
> >>> > e-mail about it, just like if a question is asked on the users or dev
> >>> > list.
> >>> > Currently (as far as I can tell) zero questions have been asked using
> >>> > this
> >>> > tag...
> >>> >
> >>> > If there are a few others who are interested in subscribing to the
> tag,
> >>> > I
> >>> > think it might be worthwhile to add StackOverflow to the website and
> >>> > docs
> >>> > where we describe how to get help and also announce on the user’s
> list
> >>> > that
> >>> > StackOverflow is an alternate place to ask questions.
> >>> >
> >>> > While this might split the community somewhat - not everyone will be
> >>> > subscribed to StackOverflow and thus might miss useful info - I think
> >>> > moving
> >>> > some helpful suggestions to StackOverflow will massively improve
> >>> > googleability of common yt issues, allowing us to avoid answering the
> >>> > same
> >>> > questions over and over again.
> >>> >
> >>> > It might also be worthwhile to ask and answer some common yt
> questions.
> >>> > Off
> >>> > the top of my head, I think we could at least answer how to load
> >>> > various
> >>> > types of datasets into yt.
> >>>
> >>> In principle, I'm okay with this.  But I have a few concerns --
> >>>
> >>> 1) I don't think the tag "yt" can be created unless someone with high
> >>> reputation does so.  (
> >>> http://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges/create-tags )
> >>> 2) We have well-defined usage metrics that we can quantify based on
> >>> mailing list activity, so this may fragment that.
> >>> 3) Many of the existing contributors and users don't want another
> inbox.
> >>>
> >>> *However*.  SO is really quite good for evolving questions and for an
> >>> updateable reference.  I do really like that aspect.  But I think we
> >>> may find ourselves getting a bit fragmented -- in fact, what I see as
> >>> being a possible outcome is that if yt does end up growing into an
> >>> interdisciplinary space, we'd see people from non-Astro disciplines
> >>> using it, but retaining our original core audience here.  All your
> >>> points really are good ones.
> >>>
> >>> I don't know.  Could be awesome.  And, I'd like to see us embrace more
> >>> modern and useful methods of communication and outreach.  So ... I
> >>> guess the experiment could be a good one!
> >>>
> >>> -Matt
> >>>
> >>> >
> >>> > -Nathan
> >>> >
> >>> > _______________________________________________
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> >>> > yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
> >>> > http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
> >>> >
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> >>> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
> >>
> >
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> >
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