@gung You might want to link directly to stats.stackexchange.com/help/merging-accounts instead of just the help page in your template comment to tell people to merge their accounts.

So are me and @whuber the only CVers going to JSM? That doesn't seem right. Too bad practically nobody uses this chat.

I'll be going! I'm still not sure exactly which dates I'll be there, though.

It's my first time going to JSM. I'm really looking forward to it!

@Ben: Cool! Hope you enjoy it! (And sort out your accommodation quickly, that is always a finicky matter!)

Those who are taking part in our tag-related meta discussions, consider weighing in here: stats.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4881. Ttnphns suggests to have dummy-variables and (recently created) categorical-encoding as two distinct tags. I feel that the former should be the synonym of the latter. There is some disagreement in the comments.

@gung If you agree with me then maybe downvote the answer to get some sort of voting process going?..

@Kodiologist: For most people outside North America going to a JSM is quite an investment (time+money) so that's not too surprising... Especially in non-academia/pharma roles is extremely hard to justify such a trip to an employer.

@amoeba I agree with you so I upvoted your answer but I did not downvote ttphns. (I usually refrain from downvoting Meta answers unless outright harmful.)

I think that @gung's comment about [one-hot] etc. is spot on. There will be some people that do not see the association immediately but generally it is not a big issue in my opinion and will quickly resolve itself.

@usεr11852 OK but if you don't downvote then please leave a comment under ttnphns's answer stating your opinion (maybe upvote gung's comment too).

Note that usually on Meta upvoting/downvoting has a special meaning and means agreement/disagreement with the proposal.

@usεr11852 That's good advice! Fortunately, I'll be crashing with a friend, so my indecisiveness won't get in the way too much

@amoeba in the thread here (stats.stackexchange.com/questions/289075/…) you mentioned not wanting to introduce a [tuning-parameter] tag. What tag do you think better serves that role?

@Ben Well, there is [hyperparameter] tag with almost 200 threads.

@kodi you might look at some of the old posts on meta that relate to JSM to see one or two people likely to be there. (Arguably those posts would be off topic on meta but have been tolerated in the past.)