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UPDATE 31/7/2014: It continues unabated.

I know that the general issue of cross-posting questions has been discussed before; opinions were not unanimous, but one could discern that the general tendency was rather "against" than "in favor". My question specifically regards synchronous cross-posting in CV and math.SE, because this happens a lot – and for known reasons: there is a rather strong group of answerers in math.SE regarding mathematical statistics and probability theory. I participate also in math.SE, and sometimes I answer some of the left-overs, and this is how I know that many questions are cross-posted practically at the same minute in both forums. But I find myself rather reluctant to churn out "please don't cross-post", mark as duplicate, etc. at the volume needed given the number of cross-posted questions... Sometimes, perhaps one should go with the flow.
There is also the methodological dilemma: which forum should be considered "primary" and which "secondary" in this specific case? (I am posting this for discussion; I don't ask from anybody to "tell me what to do").

P.S. Should I... cross-post this in meta.math.SE? :)

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    $\begingroup$ As a moderator I appreciate comments and flags that point out cross-postings. When a question would clearly be on topic on the math site, I am happy to close the posting here--they do a good job with purely mathematical questions. When it's unclear where a question belongs, it's nice to leave a comment asking the O.P. to decide which is the appropriate site (and voluntarily delete the cross-post). $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Feb 3, 2014 at 20:40
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    $\begingroup$ Please provide a model or proof of your choice that there is an unexpected surge in cross-posts, rather than a regular steady state "noise" of cross-posts between these two sites. Pedantic epidemiologist is pedantic. ;) $\endgroup$
    – Fomite
    Feb 4, 2014 at 15:59
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    $\begingroup$ @Fomite Anecdotal evidence is fine for this purpose. It would be difficult indeed to construct a cross-site query to identify cross-posts. We should all be willing to trust the impressions of someone who is as active on both sites as Alecos is. Moreover, his assertions about an increase in cross-posting activity are plausible if only because the rate at which questions are posted here continues to increase exponentially (I have the data to back that up) and there was a sudden huge jump recently after the usual mid-winter lull. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Feb 4, 2014 at 19:53
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    $\begingroup$ @whuber I was being cheeky, mainly because of a particular key word. Imagine, instead, that "epidemic" was substituted with "statistically significant", if it suits better. Also, because one of the most popular questions on the site right now is about the consequences of assuming something follows an epidemic pattern. It wasn't a very serious comment. $\endgroup$
    – Fomite
    Feb 4, 2014 at 20:28
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    $\begingroup$ why exactly cross posting is a bad thing? $\endgroup$
    – Bogdan Lataianu
    Feb 6, 2014 at 3:51
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    $\begingroup$ While I think simultaneous cross posts are inappropriate, I think posting a question here or on the math.SE after initially posting and not receiving a single answer on the other SE is completely appropriate. $\endgroup$
    – WetlabStudent
    Feb 11, 2014 at 2:19
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    $\begingroup$ At minimum add a comment to each question linking to the other one. So if somebody having a similar problem finds one of them can find the other (which might have useful answers). $\endgroup$
    – CodesInChaos
    Feb 28, 2014 at 18:16
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    $\begingroup$ Some other important meta-questions deserve links here: StackExchange: Mathematics vs. Cross Validated, and WRT the newer site-overlap issue, Mathematics Educators Stackexchange and its relationship to statistics $\endgroup$
    – Nick Stauner
    Jul 30, 2014 at 23:16
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    $\begingroup$ @NickStauner Thanks. I have accepted the invitation to Mathematics Educators site, but it does not look like they are very interested in how to teach Statistics -only 8 questions out of 595 have the tag. $\endgroup$
    – Alecos Papadopoulos
    Jul 30, 2014 at 23:23
  • $\begingroup$ @whuber It is good of course to leave it to the user of the site about the choice between two or more sites. If the question is not relevant in terms of objectives of the site, it should not be permitted for a post. If at all the moderator has not done his job well, the question may be migrated to other site with a sanction from the user or by voting by a certain number of the moderators $\endgroup$
    – user10619
    Aug 9, 2014 at 14:11

2 Answers 2

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The optimal solution is just to post a comment to the OP (and informing anyone who subsequently views the tread that it is a duplicate and) that cross-posting is frowned upon. The OP should decide which site is more appropriate and delete the other. If necessary, you can flag the moderators as well. (Note that you cannot close a question on CV as a duplicate, if the potential duplicate is on another site.)

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    $\begingroup$ That's exactly what I did a few days ago! (and I guess it worked, because the OP chose to delete the posts here and maintain the one in math.SE). $\endgroup$
    – Alecos Papadopoulos
    Nov 8, 2014 at 18:01
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I am writing an answer because I do not have enough reputation points to leave a comment. This may not technically be possible, but what if you had the tags themselves guide the direction of the question? For example: someone tags their question as "probability" and "Normal Distribution" on Mathematics (or SO for that matter), and because of the tag, the question jumps over to CV. I understand this is a simplified example and would require a lot of collaboration with Mathematics on who should handle what tags, but it might be worth considering. Also, while I recognize the desire to remain mostly autonomous from Mathematics, it would really be nice to be able to search both CV and Mathematics simultaneously.

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  • $\begingroup$ I guess your idea would not work. For example, consider questions tagged with normal-distribution. A how to integrate question would belong more on Mathematics SE than CV. $\endgroup$
    – Andre Silva
    Oct 10, 2014 at 18:06

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