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When visiting the exhibition hall at JSM 2014, I spoke with people from STEM forums on the Springer booth. The concept of STEM (why STEM? Nothing to do with STAN! Nor directly with Biology. It stands as the accronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.) is to create a sort of peer-reviewed Cross Validated where questions would be filtered (in order to avoid the most basic questions like “How can I learn about Bayesian statistics without opening a book?” or “What is the Binomial distribution?” that often clutter the Stack Exchange boards). That’s an interesting approach which I will monitor in the future, as on the one hand, it would be nice to have a Statistics forum without “lazy undergraduate” questions as one of my interlocutors put, and on the other hand, to see how STEM forums can compete with the well-established Cross Validated and its core of dedicated moderators and editors. I left the booth with a neat tee-shirt exhibiting the above quote as well as alpha-tester on the back: STEM forums is indeed calling for entries into the Statistics section, with rewards of ebooks for the first 250 entries and a sweepstakes offering a free trip to Seattle next year!
