Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Meta

Comments on Merger with a Worldbuilding site?

Parent

Merger with a Worldbuilding site?

+7
−0

Someone posted a Worldbuilding proposal on the Codidact incubator.

The topics allowed on such a site are very similar to the topics allowed on this site; for the most part Scientific Speculation is a subset of Worldbuilding. With some slight differences: this site may allow speculation questions for other purposes than Worldbuilding/creating fiction. And things like magic are off-topic here, unless looking for a viable scientific explanation for "magic x".

I'm not particularly active on either of these sites, but I notice that this site is struggling severely with inactivity. Whereas there's a pretty big and active community over at Worldbuilding SE and similar sites that can form a potential user base over here as well.

So how does the community here feel about a merger with Worldbuilding?

The Codidact category system will likely come into play somehow. Perhaps Worldbuilding becomes a category of this site or vice versa - such details can wait to the point where we know what the community thinks about a merger.

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

0 comment threads

Post
+5
−0

I am positive to a merger and I think perhaps a rebrand of this site so that is sorts below a Worldbuilding one would be the best way to go.

https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/ is already an established "brand" and it includes "science-based" as a tag, so the current contents of Scientific Speculation could easily be made a category below a Worldbuilding site. Similarly, the Rigorous Science category could be preserved as-is, as yet another category.

This would allow existing users from external Worldbuilding sites to get a flying start so to speak, as the site arrangement would be similar to what they are already used at.

The main difference that may have to be addressed, is that the new site would have a very broad scope. I don't think this is a bad thing initially - the scope can get narrowed down later when the site is active and the community notices that certain forms of questions are more or less well-received.

Another thing that's likely a hot potato is how creative vs how science-based things are allowed to get. I think we could have a ladder of sorts for all manner of questions. For example we could have these categories:

  • Sandbox. Maximum creativity allowed; pretty much anything goes.
  • Main Q&A. Reasonably relaxed and allows both Worldbuilding and other forms of speculations, but questions have to meet the site scope.
  • Scientific speculation. Restricted subset, magic and subjective questions are discouraged or simply not allowed.
  • Rigorous science. The present category from here, with higher standards when it comes to sources and claims.
History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

2 comment threads

rigorous science (9 comments)
One possibility would be to have a worldbuilding community with broad Q&A and a "science-only" catego... (2 comments)
rigorous science
Monica Cellio‭ wrote 2 months ago

In a combined community, I would fold Rigorous Science into the science category and add guidance to the effect that if you want particularly rigorous answers, say so in the question (same as you would do for any other special requirements or constraints). This makes the questions more casually visible and reduces confusion about where to post. It also frees up some room to have a blog if the community wants one, without having six categories (which starts to become cumbersome in the UI). I don't know if the community wants a blog, but some participants did in the past.

What use would a blog have here? What would be posted there?

Monica Cellio‭ wrote 2 months ago

The Worldbuilding community on SE had a blog for several years. It fizzled after things started going downhill at SE, but this is what made me think that folks here might want one. (I'm not pushing the idea; it's up to the community.) The original blog had a mix of fiction, articles on topics ranging from astronomy to geology to constructed languages, and occasional posts about the community (highlighting interesting Q&A etc).

Ah, had no idea. That’s in Medium, so separate from the site itself, though. Not sure what the pool of articles would look like if present on the Q/A site itself, and how quality would end up, and trying to prevent duplicate content. But sure, why not try it.

Monica Cellio‭ wrote 2 months ago

Right, it was separate because SE wouldn't support an on-site blog. (They used to, but when WB asked for one they said "not doing that any more, try Medium" so we did.) Here on Codidact, if the community wanted, there could be a "blog" category like on Meta, and the community could shape it however they want.

Andreas witnessed the end of the world today‭ wrote 2 months ago · edited 2 months ago

Who was allowed to write blog posts for WB on Medium, and how was quality assurance done?

Monica Cellio‭ wrote 2 months ago

Anybody could submit posts and there was an editorial board. (Any editor could approve and schedule a post.) There was also a chat room (on SE) where people could discuss ideas or work in progress. I don't remember anything ever being rejected; spammers and trolls didn't find their way there.

Any idea what would be a good way to guard against low quality content, and keep the blog as a high-quality piece of content? Perhaps a new ability required to create a blog post that would have to go through review to be released fully? So the post starts out closed, and all closed posts in that category stay hidden from everyone except for those with a reviewer ability for those posts? Maybe "Vote on Holds" or "Curator"? And to get that first ability, you'd have to have created some Q/A first? This might end up requiring coordination in chat for reviewers, which is a bit unfortunate as we use Discord.

Monica Cellio‭ wrote 2 months ago

Categories can restrict posting somewhat (as on the Meta blog, which is limited to staff), but it's not tied into the abilities system, unfortunately. (Abilities came later.) There's a concept of "established user" in the category settings but I'd have to look up what that means. If the community wants a blog, I think we can moderate it suitably, but that's a discussion that should happen in a more visible place than this comment thread and after there's a suggestion to add a blog. My comment about a blog was part of category taxonomy, so to speak, not an actual proposal.