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An "Operations Research and Analytics" site for Stack Exchange has been proposed https://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/121892/operations-research-and-analytics, and is now in need of enough committers to get to beta.

There was an OR Exchange site. But it has been permanently shut down due to SPAMMING. The proposed new site is viewed as a replacement for that.

It appears the long pole in the tent is getting enough committers who have 200+ on other SE sites. Cross Validated has enough overlap with the proposed site that I would think many of its active users would be interested in the proposed new site. Among other things, the proposed new site could become a home for all optimization questions, of which there are many on Cross Validated, not all of them even involving probability or statistics.

Is there any way to solicit among Cross Validated users or advertise there?

EDIT: The Stack Exchange site, "Operations Research" entered private Beta yesterday at https://or.stackexchange.com/. It should go to public beta in one to two weeks.

Until it goes public, I believe only users who have already "committed" to it while in proposal (commitment) phase can actively contribute to the site.

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    $\begingroup$ How exactly does "& Analytics" extend the scope from OR? $\endgroup$ Apr 10, 2019 at 12:30
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    $\begingroup$ This sounds again like a site that is potentially quite similar to Cross Validated, leading to greater fragmentation of content in the SE system. That impression is reinforced by your comment that, "Cross Validated has enough overlap with the proposed site that I would think many of its active users would be interested in the proposed new site". That leaves me mixed about the proposal. Can you address that issue? $\endgroup$ Apr 10, 2019 at 13:30
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    $\begingroup$ Regarding the title question, asking here on meta.CV seems like a reasonable & appropriate way. You could also post an answer to our Community Promotion Ads — 2019 thread. $\endgroup$ Apr 10, 2019 at 13:34
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    $\begingroup$ @Scortchi See my mega downvoted thread, answer, and comments at area51.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/28585/… . In short, I hate the analytics word. $\endgroup$ Apr 10, 2019 at 13:47
  • $\begingroup$ @gung See my above comment, but also note that there is also a lot of underlap. Feel free to either respond to my thread in my comment above, or start your own thread at area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/121892/… with your views. I think Operations Research is bigger than the scope of Cross Validated, but almost everything in Cross Validated coudl be part of or contribute to Operastions Research. $\endgroup$ Apr 10, 2019 at 13:50
  • $\begingroup$ @gung I have passed your suggestion about Community Promotion site to one of the Operations Research and Analytics site organizers (who has >1.6K rep on math stack exchange) $\endgroup$ Apr 10, 2019 at 14:00
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    $\begingroup$ @gung There's an obvious overlap w/ sites like CV, DS, TCS, MO, Math, TeX, SO, etc. -- but still, as pointed out before, there's also quite an "underlap": integer programming modeling + computation, constraint programming, "soft aspects" of OR ...and others don't fit any of the sites listed before (at least not in terms of a "single hub" for questions in these fields) $\endgroup$
    – fbahr
    Apr 13, 2019 at 19:45
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    $\begingroup$ @fbahr Except for the "soft aspects" (whatever those are), all those are on-topic on Stack Overflow or Computer Science, depending on whether you have a question about implementation or theory. $\endgroup$ Apr 15, 2019 at 7:24
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    $\begingroup$ @Discretelizard As a member of the OR community, I would much rather have a "one stop shopping" experience than have to monitor keywords on multiple sites (and develop a neural network to predict where my next question would best fit). $\endgroup$
    – prubin
    Apr 15, 2019 at 14:19
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    $\begingroup$ @prubin Well, wouldn't we all want a single site for our particular community? Not delving in clearly new topics does not mean you cannot have a new site, but it is a point against them. You can especially expect that those who like the sites you're overlapping with and are not in your particular community to have this attitude. Looking at the proposed questions, I see quite a few that can be asked on Computer Science (such as number 1,2 and 4 Don't believe me? Why don't you try ;) ). $\endgroup$ Apr 15, 2019 at 14:30
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    $\begingroup$ On the other hand, I also see a question about supply models. Modelling business processes does seem like new ground, so that suggest that you highlight that when 'presenting' your proposal to people on sites where you have overlap. $\endgroup$ Apr 15, 2019 at 14:30
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    $\begingroup$ Why not invite that community here, and so extend the scope of cross validated? $\endgroup$ Apr 29, 2019 at 8:19
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    $\begingroup$ I think of OR as a set of math and computational tools for making decisions about complex systems. Its scope includes math modeling, optimization, applied probability, queuing theory, and simulation, plus applied areas like supply chain management, health care, military, energy, etc. More recently, DS/analytics/ML have intersected with OR. I don't think it's a subset of CV or any other SE site. (Part of the concern here stems from the fact that our proposal was originally called OR & Analytics, hence a red flag for overlap with CV, but the "& Analytics" part has now been dropped.) $\endgroup$ Apr 29, 2019 at 12:53
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    $\begingroup$ By its nature, OR overlaps with lots of other fields, so it's not a surprise that there are OR questions on other SE sites. Plus, for years the OR community used a standalone SE-type site rather than hosting their Q&A here -- so people wanting to ask OR questions on SE found homes for their questions at math, CV, SO, DS, MO, TCS, etc. In my opinion the fact that OR questions are being asked on these sites argues in favor of an OR SE site rather than against -- it means we are too dispersed and need a central location. $\endgroup$ Apr 29, 2019 at 12:54
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    $\begingroup$ I am sure that there will still be overlap, and that's OK with me. Someone who wants to ask a question about TSP might choose to ask it on OR or on TCS or on SO, depending on the nature of the question and the person's own bias. (Just as someone wanting to ask about mathematical statistics might ask it on CV or math or SO.) But right now there is no real home on SE for the OR community. $\endgroup$ Apr 29, 2019 at 12:54

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