Let's say there's a site that I'd like to see graduate into a full SE site (I'm not going to mention Code Golf here). Now, I'm aware that the answer to "when will we graduate" is "when you're ready."  However, what if I have the question "what do we need to do to graduate?" What if I think we're ready to graduate, and I want to know why we're not? What is the process for asking that?   Do I ask on its per-site meta? If I do this, I'm not sure it will get the attention by the Official SE Graduation Committee of Officialness™. Ask on meta.SO (meta.SE soon)? This doesn't seem right either though, since it's site-specific. Something else?
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I came across  today in a separate question:     The only thing holding [Code Review] back from graduating is the lack of high rep users - there just aren't enough 1k+, 3k+ users on the site, and it can't quite yet sustain an election. Every single thing about CR is ready but that - it's really just a matter of time at this point (and, well, voting).   Almost all the posts about what the criteria for graduation are vague and don't mention specific examples:       The first question specifically asks about 2 beta (now graduated) sites, but the answer is more general, "Look at this blog" with general guidance.  How often are site stats reviewed by the team in charge of betas? And is it appropriate to create meta questions asking where a site stands to get feedback to the community on how to improve?
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While browsing through some questions, I was reminded of a problem I encountered in an earlier point in work. I came up with something that could be technically called a solution to the problem, but I can't really say I am satisfied with it. I thought about asking the question on SO.  In effect, the question would read something like a more detailed version of "This was my problem. This is how I currently solved it. Is there a more appropriate/efficient method of accomplishing this goal?" I'm a bit unsure as to whether it'd be an appropriate question since it technically already has an accepted answer, especially if there is no "more appropriate/efficient method", then it seems questionable why I would even ask in the first place.  So, should I ask this kind question? On a related note, would it be better etiquette to include my current solution as part of the question body, or should it be appended as an answer?  Update  I am accepting quack's because . But I find all of the answers given to have been satisfactory, and a good learning. Thanks to everyone!
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My earliest PhD graduation date is 10 months away. Funding permits me to stay 1–3 months longer, so the final date is still uncertain.  It is never too early to make contacts for possible post-docs. But how long in advance is too early to formally apply to post-doc job openings or funding opportunities? Depending on the bureaucracy, the path from applying to starting can probably be anything from a week up to a year — someone I know is applying with  which had the opening advertised in August, application deadline in October, will have interviews in December/January, and the commencement of work only in September, 13 months after the initial job advertisement. My personal guess is that the long time between interviews and starting is to create a level playing field between those who do and those who don't need to go through a visa application procedure.  If I'm too early in applying for a post-doc, a hosting institution might prefer someone who can start earlier and where the graduation date is more certain. For example, in my case the graduation date is still uncertain, so there is a risk in accepting even if they are willing to wait. Project funding might also require the money to be spent rather soon.  If I wait too long, there might be a considerable period where I'm between jobs. Having a long (>6 months) period between jobs is a disadvantage for me. Maybe it's also a disadvantage for a hosting institution (I'm not sure).  How do I find the balance? For example, considering the duration of funding and visa applications, does it make sense to apply e.g. ? Or is it in any case virtually inevitable to have at least several months before my PhD graduation and the start of a post-doc?
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I don't know how new Stack Exchange sites get opened. I've found some of the new SE sites to be very useless. There are many different and important subjects that are not being addressed by any SE site. I strongly suggest creating a new SE site about unscientific psychology. I have come across many questions that are related to human problems that I would like to ask on an SE site.  How do new SE sites get opened up? Is there a place for voting up new SE sites?
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I am finishing my Master's degree in Mathematics and will be enrolled in a PhD program in the U.S. starting from fall. In my country (Russia) we have thesis as a mandatory requirement for all degrees (including BSc and MSc, not just PhD). I hoped that my Master's thesis would be good enough to be published, but my advisor says it is not (I derived some new results, but they aren't very generic and groundbreaking). My Bachelor's thesis was not published too.  My question -- is it bad to have no publications prior to PhD or is it normal to begin publishing only during PhD years? In my view no publications is understandable for BSc students, but I'm not sure about MSc. The question is not about admission (I was admitted to a couple of decent programs this year), but about general timeline and expectations from students in sciences, especially from Master's degree holders.
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I know that sites have two main stages once they leave Area 51: beta and graduated.  In order for a site to graduate from beta, it must meet a few requirements such as   A certain number of questions per day (10 I think) A certain number of users above a specific reputation level   However, I was wondering if a site that has graduated, Movies &amp; TV for example, could be reduced back down to beta level if they drop below these requirements?
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For a client we'll need 29,000 terms (all the highschool's in the US) and each term needs 6 meta items (address, phone...). My initial thought was to store the term meta information as suggested  but after looking through it again I will be using lots of terms and I wonder if it will overload the options table.  Is there a good time to create a new table? Would this qualify? Other thoughts on how to relate the HS that a person attends to the 'post' that will be their academic profile?  It was  that I make the 'terms' a Custom Post Type. I'm not opposed to that either but I fail to see how I'll relate the CPT to multiple 'authors' since a school will have more than one student that attends it. Because of the multiple ownership of the content terms just seemed to fit better.
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I came across  in the review queue. Sometimes I come across questions of similar form. My thought is to vote to close as "too-broad" because:   Question is very broad, there are many, many ways to perform that task. No code was posted, no specific coding problem was identified.   But, and this is in general, I always get tripped up when I see that these questions have a reasonable accepted answer: I would have voted it too-broad immediately had I seen the question pop up in the new questions stream; but when I see that the answerer seemed to find the question clear enough (and his answer was accepted and deemed satisfactory), I end up going back and thinking "if it was clear enough for the answerer to provide a specific answer, doesn't that mean it wasn't too broad after all?"  How should I handle questions like this?   And, in general, how should I handle questions that, alone, seem too broad, but when answered, seem specific? Should I ignore the answers when considering closing a question, or do they retroactively change the quality of the question?
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On Software Engineering we want to update our FAQ to contain a list of what's not allowed much like the  and  ones.  See   However, I've only just noticed that while there is an "edit" link below the What kind of questions can I ask here? section there isn't one below the What kind of questions should I not ask here? section.  So rather than having to bother the developers can we have edit rights over this section as well? After all what's off topic is just as important as what's on topic, and it's just as likely to evolve over time (see Super User as a prime example of this).  We've quite a good list of things we agree shouldn't be asked on Software Engineering and would like to update the FAQ. We'll just edit them into main section for now, but it would be nice to be able to edit the "proper" section.  Can anyone say whether a) this is going to be done and b) when? (and don't say 6 to 8 weeks)
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I've recently run into many questions where to author asks several related questions in one post, many of them asked before.   I'm wondering what out policy is on such questions:   Should I vote-close them as being not constructive? Should I vote-close them as duplicates? Should I leave them be? Or even suggest an answer?    - Each of the questions: Waiting for an AJAX request with selenium, and headless browsing in selenium have been asked here before, but he asked both in one.  I've done my best to search for similar questions here in meta but I was unable to find any, reading appreciated.
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As a high school student, a future college student, and someone who loves coding and answering questions on SO, I was wondering if there was a Stack Exchange internship, or perhaps something similar, for students to learn and develop their coding skills. If there were, that would be really awesome, and it would be a great experience. Is there a SE internship, and has anyone ever considered it?
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I'm applying for graduate school (PhD in computer science), and I'm considering writing to faculty whose research areas match with what I intend to pursue, to understand:   Whether they'd be looking for new students at all in the coming year? If they did, would they be potentially interested in my profile (I know no-one would guarantee an acceptance without me going through the process of application), but it would help to know if they would not be interested at all in me - which would leave me  free apply to other schools in which I get a neutral/positive response.   Keeping the above in mind, what would be the best way to introduce myself in the first mail?   What should be the salutation - I know "Respected Sir" sounds archaic, but was wondering if "Dear Professor X" sounded too informal or not! Do I state my credentials (details of where I did my undergrads/masters) first, or do I state my purpose in writing to him/her? How to mention my background concisely, without giving too much details, while at the same time not "underselling" myself as a potential grad student? I want to give a link to my resume/profile hosted on my website - should I embed the hyperlink, or is it better to write the link in plain text? How do I end such a letter - the obvious ones (such as "see you soon" or "till we meet again") being not quite suitable in this case)?   I'm basically afraid of saying too much (causing vexation) or too little (resulting in no response to my missive). I understand that the faculty are accustomed to seeing their inbox flooded with such mails each year, few of which ever get a positive response - which may not always be due to lack of an interesting profile, but the manner in which the mail is worded (Many professors have explicitly mentioned on their websites that they would not respond to generic "Do you have funding" type of queries no matter what the credentials of the student are!).   Though my interest is specific to CS, I believe it would apply to other fields as well. Also, I would be interested in the opinions of both present faculty members (who have to sort through such mails), and past applicants to grad-school (who have the experience of successfully writing to their advisers before applying)...
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I have a list of requirements for a program, but I don't know what program meets these criteria. That's about general-purpose software, for example, not a programming IDE or statistical workbench, questions about which would certainly go to respective sites.  Is this question appropriate on Stack Overflow? Where should I ask about it? On Super User or elsewhere?
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Per , it seems like the beta phase of sites is continuing much longer than previously. Currently, pro-temp moderators are nominated when a site is only a few weeks old, when the site is still very new and unshaped. They continue until they are unable to moderate, or the site graduates to a full site. The problem that I'm seeing is that there are now sites that have been in beta for over a year, which is a time period sufficient that many changes can be made in a persons life, that the community has started to take ownership already, and as a whole, seems to be ready to start taking at least some ownership.  So, the question is, should we allow elections for beta sites that have crossed over some considerable amount of time, perhaps 6 months or something around that mark?
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I've written a few questions on Stack Overflow before that have been closed due to being "not constructive" or "not a real question".  Now, after scanning the FAQ for the site a few times, I understand that my questions were indeed closed for good reason.  However, even after reading the FAQ, I still don't understand why a question of "what's the best practice here?" is a bad thing.  I feel as though if you properly explain your situation as thoroughly as possible, then it shouldn't be a bad question at all.  Questions like "what's the best language?" or "which framework should I use?" are indeed bad questions initially, but I feel if you specify in the post (or preferably in the title itself) what the context is, shouldn't that be deserving of some kind of an answer?  In  I asked what would be "best practice", and naturally my question was closed.  So I read the FAQ and learned how to make a more constructive question, of which I've now re-edited in an attempt to be less vague.  I understand the desire to avoid debate and lengthy discussion over a question, but I also feel as though sometimes there are certain questions which should be asked if proper context is given.  Why is a question over "best practice" always a bad question to ask?
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have already been created through .  have already completed their beta stage and are waiting for launch.  are in public beta stage.  are in commitment phase in   proposals are listed in   Now it is really confusing to find a suitable site to ask a question. As an example - I host a blog using . Now I have a question about this hosting. I want to post it in a . Where will I post? I have 2 options available now.     Are developers trying anything to solve this confusing matter?
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Instead of asking a question I would love to share the one or other code snippet I have created that is too small to make a full article on e.g. CodeProject.com or CodePlex.com.  Question: Would it be a good idea to post it as a Stack Overflow question? Or are there any other suggestions how to share it?  (Of course I could post it on my own weblog and then twitter about it, but I would love to put it in more of a programming context)