The Classical Channel

Anonymous

11:15 AM

People, our question rate is dropping on the main site

Anonymous

I was sort of expecting this though

11:48 AM

@Blue Yeah, 1. It's the weekend - this happens. 2. This is a private beta - there are a few posts on Meta Stack Exchange that show stats showing fewer questions in beta - it can take about half a year before things properly start improving and 3. We started the private beta with only half the usual commitment

You're probably so used to the big sites (physics, maths) that the usage drop-off rate at the weekends isn't really noticeable, but on e.g. Wordbuilding, I've noticed that there's fewer 'frequent user' posts, although maybe a few more first posts. The chat is often (usually?) dead on the weekends though

Having said that, it would be great if we could get more questions... I might have another one, but one more question isn't a solution :P

Anonymous

As long as it doesn't fall below 5 per day it should be OK I guess. If it does, it is possible that the site won't make it to graduation

Anonymous

5

Quantum Computing – quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com

Beta Q&A site for engineers, scientists, programmers, and computing professionals interested in quantum computing.

Currently in private beta.

Anonymous

In two more days it should be in public beta

Anonymous

@Mithrandir24601 Of course. The solution is obviously not us posting more questions :P

Anonymous

The questions have to come from visitors

Mithrandir24601

11:56 AM

@Blue Not quite: "We expect this site to go public in about 12 days. "

Anonymous

Just good to do a reality check once in a while

Anonymous

@Mithrandir24601 Where is it written?

Anonymous

The standard is 7 days

Anonymous

for private beta

Mithrandir24601

@Blue Apparently, the standard's now 2-3 weeks (if not 3 weeks) - I've been reading a fair bit of the beta tags on meta se

Anonymous

11:57 AM

@Mithrandir24601 Oh I see

Anonymous

If this site doesn't work at least SE will learn the lesson that it's not a good idea to start a beta at half-threshold. That said, I hope it does get through

Mithrandir24601

@Blue Open up the site on a private window or something (or log out) so that you're not logged on and you get

Anonymous

Oh! It was written 7 there, earlier

Anonymous

I bet

Anonymous

They changed it

Mithrandir24601

12:02 PM

@Blue Also, this has changed a bit - once a site is in public beta, it won't get closed as a result of low numbers of questions. It could get closed if people stop bothering to moderate it. However, there are no such guarantees about getting it past private beta

Anonymous

@Mithrandir24601 I see. The policies have changed a lot since the earlier years

Anonymous

I haven't read the newer Meta SE posts regarding beta

Anonymous

BTW that's some good news XD

Mithrandir24601

The oldest public beta is actually almost seven and a half years old! area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/5220/board-and-card-games

Anonymous

@Mithrandir24601 Wow

Anonymous

12:06 PM

That's an incredible feat :P

Mithrandir24601

Apparently chemistry had a lack of questions in the private beta for some reason, but generally the trend seems to be that behaviour from days 3-7 is a good indicator of the future, although generally sites do start (properly) growing after a few months

So, based on that, not much weekend activity :P

Anonymous

Let's hope for the best anyway. I will go out and get some exercise now. Becoming a couch potato day by day :P

Mithrandir24601

@Blue I was supposed to have Kung fu today, but it's snowing again (in the middle of March!) and they've predicted heavy snow this afternoon, so it's been cancelled :/

Andrew O

6:24 PM

Any suggestions on what Strangeworks could do to drive traffic to QC SE? We're here to help.

Mithrandir24601

@AndrewO There's the good ol' Twitter + Facebook plug, but that's all I can think off...

Anonymous

@AndrewO This site's contents don't yet come up in Google searches

Anonymous

Maybe SE can do something about that

Anonymous

Probably once it goes public

Anonymous

Another possibility is advertisement on other SE sites

Anonymous

6:38 PM

There are many prominent QC guys hanging around in CS SE and Physics SE like Peter Shor, Aaranson, etc. I'm surprised that they don't seem to know about his site yet

Anonymous

Shor regularly visits Physics SE

Anonymous

@AndrewO As for driving traffic in, it really won't be a bad idea to contact all the prominent university groups on QC, around the world, by mail

Anonymous

Many people would be happy to know the existence of such a site

Anonymous

Basically utilize the connections and brand-name that your company has

Anonymous

Also maybe make the Strangeworks website a bit less creepy

Anonymous

6:41 PM

:P

Anonymous

Like at least add the name and details of the people who work at Strangeworks. At present it seems like a super-secret super-creepy anonymous group

Mithrandir24601

7:22 PM

@Blue I've thought about this - sadly the community ads for this year seem to already be sorted out :/ The only other thing would be to have meta posts on the relevant SEs

Unless you're thinking of something else?

Anonymous

@Mithrandir24601 Strangeworks is collaborating with SE, and sponsoring this site. So it would make sense for them to speak with the SE team and ask them to begin the community ads for this site (on the other sites). (Particularly because this is a rare first endeavour on both SE and Strangeworks' part and both would benefit from this site doing well)

Anonymous

If @AndrewO makes the Meta post it would have more effect

Mithrandir24601

@Blue It would be great if they could, only community ads are exactly that - decided by the community. I mean, if the SE team are willing to go to the effort of making a meta post on a few SEs for them to potentially get one more community ad, that'd be great!

Anonymous

It's really not anymore in our hands. All we normal users can do is spread the word by mouth or by social media, but I doubt that would reach a reasonable number of people

Mithrandir24601

But that'd be something that's not normally done, so the question is, would they?

@Blue :/

Anonymous

7:30 PM

@Mithrandir24601 Well, this site isn't normal, either :P

Anonymous

So there's some hope

Mithrandir24601

@Blue True that :P

Start leaving orange cubes everywhere?

Anonymous

Also the other idea which I gave seems reasonable to me. If they send a short mail explaining about the site (using their brand-name) to the prominent QC groups around the world, even that might work wonders.

Anonymous

An invitation mail basically

Anonymous

@Mithrandir24601 Heh

Mithrandir24601

7:34 PM

Oh, oh!! I know! Orange cubes with little hearts on them! And call them quantum companion cubes!! :D

That would be the best! :D

Anonymous

lolol XD

Anonymous

Cube-its with a heart ;)

Anonymous

@Mithrandir24601 Do you people use subways during heavy snow? Or are there special vehicles to travel through snow?

Anonymous

I've personally never seen snow in my real life :P

Mithrandir24601

@Blue We don't have subways in Bristol and it snows so rarely that it's not worth investing in anything that's good at dealing with snow. Or at least, that what we tell ourselves - I think the reality is that we just like an excuse to take the day off and we can (as a country) afford it on the one/two days every so often that it happens

Anonymous

7:46 PM

Hehe. I can sort of understand.

Anonymous

Good excuse though

Anonymous

:D

Anonymous

Here we only get rainfall. That too, not very often

Mithrandir24601

@Blue ah, that's something that we get consistently here :P

Anonymous

When we used to stay in Meghalaya (wettest state on the planet), it used to rain almost 24*7

Anonymous

7:49 PM

That was kinda cool

Anonymous

Actually the wettest place is a small village there named Mawsynram

Anonymous

So you literally always have to carry an umbrella

Anonymous

@Mithrandir24601 Ah, I see

Anonymous

Didn't know that about UK (I guess it's specific to Bristol?)

Mithrandir24601

Sounds about right :P It's not heavy most of the time, but there's always a relatively high chance of rain

Anonymous

7:51 PM

London also has a very shabby weather like that or so I've heard

Anonymous

@Mithrandir24601 I see

Mithrandir24601

@Blue Nope - pretty much the entire UK

Anonymous

Seems like a good place for me. I love dark skies and rainy seasons :D

Anonymous

(Maybe I'm a bit biased because here we receive the scorching sun almost 9 months out of 12...so I've grown tired of this weather)

Anonymous

Rain is like a relief

Andrew O

8:05 PM

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Wheels are turning.

Anonymous

@AndrewO Good luck

Transcript for

The Classical Channel