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A couple of days a go, I asked a question which was related to statistics, math, machine learning and computer science. First I posted it in here, then when I didn't get what I was looking for, I decided to post it also in math and computer science and I've got pretty interesting responses from mathematicians and computer scientists. But later on, all of my questions were deleted by moderators and I was subjected by them as "someone who wasted time of the others" and etc. They got angry of me and wrote some negative comments about what I did.

My intention was not really to waste anybody's time, actually I needed the opinion of different people from different fields. This is what is missing actually in the field I am working on. We don't have mathematicians, statisticians and computer scientists working together, so I decided to ask the same question in different sites and compare different responses from different points of views and that is what I was looking for.

I could share my first question on different sites, if it was possible, but unfortunately, I couldn't figure it out how and I think this is a limitation of the site itself.

I believe this website gathers amazing scientists together and is a great place for between-field discussions. I hope moderators, and the website admins can come up with an idea for such situations.

I apologize if I made some people angry or upset. I was trying to view a problem from different angels and I would say the results was very interesting. I've got some mathematical proof, some experimental solutions and some machine learning approaches that could all solve a single problem via different approaches. But I believe we need to fill this gap between such fields.

I am not sure how to address those moderators and people (probably very experienced and good scientists) in here but I hope they read this post.

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    $\begingroup$ I voted to close since you got an answer to your questions on other sites. I agree that it is difficult to gather opinions from different communities, but that's the way SE works actually (see, e.g., this meta thread, among others). However, you can post your question on one site and join chat rooms on other sites if you like. Ours is Ten Fold. $\endgroup$
    – chl
    Jan 26, 2016 at 9:56
  • $\begingroup$ @chl that's right. I needed answers from different points of views. If you go and check the answers, some suggested a least square solution, some mvlr, some Kalman filters, some an EM algorithm etc. Chat might be interesting, but not really what I need. I would like to actually post a question on different sites, which is not possible as the other meta post thread was mentioning. Of course, SE is an amazing place, but we should try to keep improving it to make it even better, right? $\endgroup$
    – PickleRick
    Jan 26, 2016 at 10:01
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    $\begingroup$ Some related discussion here $\endgroup$
    – Glen_b
    Jan 26, 2016 at 10:33

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The acceptable way to do the nearest thing to what you want to do, according to the current consensus, is to

  • Link the question across the different sites

  • Edit each version to suit the different topic area of each site, rather than posting word-for-word copies

The first seems quite uncontestable: if someone who fancies answering is told about the other versions they can decide for themself whether they'd be wasting their time or not; & if it's useful to compare responses from different points of view, you should give others the chance to do so.

The second has been contested, but not successfully—& rules are rules. I can't think of an example where there'd be a statistical answer & a mathematical answer & a computer-science answer to exactly the same question; reaching different audiences isn't held to be sufficient justification in itself (& as @NickCox has pointed out, they're not completely different audiences).

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No one is angry or upset with you. At least, not that I know of. But Stack Exchange sites do have certain rules that you must abide by, if you wish to participate in this community. One of those rules is: do not cross-post on multiple Stack Exchange sites. You may refer to Is cross-posting a question on multiple Stack Exchange sites permitted if the question is on-topic for each site? for documentation of the policy and explanation of why the policy exists.

The rules exist for a reason: they were chosen in a deliberate attempt to maintain high quality standards and make these sites work well. It's not that we've never thought of the arguments you raise; we have given this some thought. We do understand the arguments you raise about why you wish cross-posting was allowed, but there are other reasons why allowing cross-posting would be harmful, and the site has judged that the potential harms outweigh the benefits. I do hope you'll respect that judgement.

You shouldn't take it personally. The rules must be enforced-- but no one is trying to single you out or make you feel unwelcome. Now that you understand the rules, I hope you will continue contributing to Stack Exchange sites in the future, with this in mind.

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    $\begingroup$ This is the essence of the matter: it's explicit SE policy to ask people not to do this. But here's a simple key point. Cross-posting usually gets noticed because many people are active in several forums, for precisely the same reason as the OP's, namely that their interests straddle those several. That's a positive really. $\endgroup$
    – Nick Cox
    Jan 26, 2016 at 14:06

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