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Math Teaching and Pedagogy Stackexchange has passed its first test and is now registering 200 users for a private beta. Anyone can commit at levels from 'Professionals' to 'Enthusiasts' or even 'Just Curious'. As this would be the first education proposal to succeed, the input from experienced members of academia.se from all areas would be helpful.

To register, follow the link and hit "Commit". Thanks to those who helped in the first phase.

http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/64216/mathematics-learning-studying-and-education

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Following up on a comment from EnergyNumbers, please be careful in not "spamming" Ac.SE with this proposal. I believe that people who are interested are now following it. In the last two weeks, you posted two questions directly advertising this proposal in addition to the current post:

In particular, you included twice the link to the proposal in your question on Ac.SE, which can appear particularly aggressive, especially for people not interested in the proposal (i.e., all non-mathematicians, who are the vast majority here).

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  • It may well be that non-mathematicians are the vast majority here, but the link you provided suggests that mathematicians are actually a rather significant minority (around 25%) of the users.
    – Mark Meckes
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 10:31
  • Actually, probably more than that, since some voters on that poll probably placed themselves in more than one category.
    – Mark Meckes
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 10:35
  • @MarkMeckes: I agree with you, but that still means that there are 75% of the users of this site not interested in this proposal, which is, by nature, limited to mathematicians. I'm not saying that the existing posts are off-topic, but they are probably enough.
    – user102
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 10:35
  • "… they are probably enough." Yes, I agree with that.
    – Mark Meckes
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 10:42
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    @CharlesMorisset I agree that it needs no more advertising. Surprisingly, the number of people from Academia.SE who commited is so small as to not show up in the list on area51. I feel that this more than anything suggests that this community is simply not interested in hearing more.
    – Brian Rushton
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 12:26
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    I agree that I did not see the need for more links to be included to the proposal. However, calling the behavior "spamming" seems a bit much to me. Also, the fact that you make a point of claiming that this site will not be of interest to "all non-mathematicians, who are the vast majority here" seems a bit less than collegial. Moreover, the claim that you have to be a mathematician to be interested in mathematics education is somewhere between inaccurate (obviously it will be of interest to academics in the field of mathematics and science education) and pernicious....
    – Pete L. Clark
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 14:20
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    You are taking pains to create divisions between mathematicians and other academics. I find that to be against the spirit of academia.
    – Pete L. Clark
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 14:21
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    @PeteL.Clark: I'm not creating division, I'm pointing to a poll done by the community itself, stating that over 65 entries in the poll, only 16 identified themselves as mathematicians. I don't like your attack stating that I'm creating division, as a moderator, I'm making sure that all the community is represented here.
    – user102
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 14:32
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    @PeteL.Clark: The Area51 page for the proposal explicitly states "Proposed Q&A site for math educators, enthusiasts, students, professors". My Oxford dictionary define mathematician as "an expert in or student of mathematics", which seems to fit well the proposal for Area51.
    – user102
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 14:33
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    @PeteL.Clark: I didn't say it was spamming, and as a matter of fact, I didn't close or delete any of the post. I warned against a behaviour that could be assimilated as spamming if continued. This is a responsibility as a moderator to warn users against potential problematic behaviour, and Brian himself admitted that this post could be seen as spamming.
    – user102
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 14:35
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    @PeteL.Clark: Whenever I'm writing a statement as a moderator (which was obviously the case here), I'm being careful of what I write. I would greatly appreciate if you could do the same when you attack such a statement.
    – user102
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 14:37
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    @Charles: The matter here is more subtle than what your Oxford dictionary can tell you. In academia there are big differences between "mathematician", "mathematics education researcher" and "student of mathematics", as I think you know. I was careful about what I wrote: there is no need to make claims that a certain academic site will not be of interest to the vast majority of members of academia.SE. As one academic to another, I find that non-collegial.
    – Pete L. Clark
    Commented Feb 24, 2014 at 14:49

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