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fyi. the two sites are neck-and-neck but as of now an inflection point has been reached and cs.se is pulling out in front in total # of questions. cs.se as of this second has 5412 questions; tcs.se has 5402 questions. this is quite notable also given that cs.se has a significantly younger age. obviously, the saying "quality over quantity" is applicable, & # of questions is only one dimension of the site, albeit a crucial one that correlates with overall participation/ engagement/ health etc.

sincere congratulations to all participants on this major accomplishment!

thoughts, re future etc?

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    $\begingroup$ For me the central question is whether the site is ever going to graduate. $\endgroup$ Mar 9, 2014 at 6:02
  • $\begingroup$ @Yuval yeah agreed but what would that mean, differently? more a symbolic step? it would not chg site dynamics much it would seem. probably the main issue there (my guess) is increasing scale. shog9 is being a bit evasive about why it hasnt right now, he said last time "just keep doing the same thing"... also it does seem like eg voting is not so frequent/engaged, raphael was pointing that out recently in chat... $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Mar 9, 2014 at 16:36
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    $\begingroup$ @YuvalFilmus I think the numbers are ok for us to graduate. The limiting point is that graduated sites have their own design and Stack Exchange lacks designer manpower, though they've recruited a second one so it should be better now. Personal Finance & Money and The Workplace graduated recently with slightly fewer questions per day but more traffic. What makes me hesitate on graduation is that we're good with CS undergraduate topics, algorithms and programming language theory but have very little coverage of most applied topics. $\endgroup$ Mar 11, 2014 at 10:26
  • $\begingroup$ agreed that the site tends toward more theoretical than applied but (afaik, eg wrt meta) there has never been any push to applied topics & the scope says little about it in particular. ie thats just an emergent property. wrt se stds the site is graded on its own merits/scope, not on an ideal. $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Mar 13, 2014 at 15:01
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    $\begingroup$ I continue to be optimistic about this site's potential and hope that it will graduate soon. That said, my enthusiasm for the site's direction has waned somewhat. I felt the site going into a fairly theoretical direction early on... understandable, given the early adopters were pretty much universally from TCS.SE. I find myself occasionally visiting the site nowadays and thinking that it's become TCS-lite. Even that might make for a passable site (though, perhaps tellingly, not one I'd be particularly interested in visiting), but for the combative "problem dump" trend emerging of late. $\endgroup$
    – Patrick87
    Apr 21, 2014 at 18:28
  • $\begingroup$ hi @Patrick87 it seems to me like enthusiasm might be waning based on collective votes also. are you saying increasing problem dumps are a problem, or increasing combativeness over them? $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Apr 21, 2014 at 18:50
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    $\begingroup$ @vzn I'm of the opinion that the current stance is counter-productive, if not outright rude. Alright, this is the Internet; people are going to find ways to get offended about anything, and we don't need to pander to them. That's not a carte blanche to be a jerk. It's like my going to questions I find to be duplicates and writing "This is a tired worn-out old question we've already answered several times." If the site's going to drive practitioners away with a slavish devotion to remaining anti-implementation, it feels like a bad move to also alienate students looking for homework help. $\endgroup$
    – Patrick87
    Apr 21, 2014 at 20:45
  • $\begingroup$ @Patrick87 ok! are you saying youd like to see more on implementation & less theory/abstraction? or...? $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Apr 21, 2014 at 20:47
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    $\begingroup$ What I'm saying is this: if I were King of the Internet, I'd decree that we encourage (good) implementation questions to the extent that they relate to the subject matter of computer science; furthermore, I'd treat condescending and/or dismissive language (especially when targeted at less experienced users) as a punishable offense. (I'd rather not name any names or give any examples, but use your imagination.) This is especially true in cases where site policies, like the Homework policy, are being skirted or paid lip-service. $\endgroup$
    – Patrick87
    Apr 21, 2014 at 20:52
  • $\begingroup$ @Patrick87 ok; agree hw policy seems not being followed exactly. however youre a mod, its up to you to lead on these policies. if its a disagreement with another mod, plz try to work it out... $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Apr 21, 2014 at 21:25

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