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I've been making intense efforts to bring in some colleagues, which is all good (I hope) and fun, but ultimately limited, since each of us non-superstars only has a limited number of contacts. Thus I wonder: what is the policy on recruiting new users, in particular from other SE sites?

I see a significant overlap with the quantum-information tag in PhysicsSE and with the quantum-computing tag in CSTheorySE, and I'm possibly missing others. Is it OK (and are we supposed to) visit these sister sites and let people know that this specialized site exists and that it needs their participation to keep existing? (If yes, I assume this would best be done by users native to those sites rather than by SEnewbies such as myself) Or would this be considered as some kind of (frown upon) spam?

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3 Answers 3

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As far as I'm aware, the following 'promotional activity' for communities on SE is appropriate:

I think making a post on another site's meta is also fine, but I'm not sure. (this is sometimes done for new sites that are still in the proposal phase (i.e. don't exist yet), so I guess this is also possible for beta sites)

I don't think that your activity on the other sites matters a lot, the only thing that would matter is how much you know the users on the site. So, if you want to promote this site in those communities, feel free to do so!

Note that you shouldn't actively promote this site (or anything at all) on the other site's 'main', unless it is relevant (e.g. if someone asks a QC question it is fine to mention this site).

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    $\begingroup$ Just a reminder here to promoters to be polite and not spammy. For the community ads, also remember that generally ads are supposed to be customized to the community, instead of just having one ad you post to all the sites. $\endgroup$
    – auden Mod
    Commented Apr 14, 2018 at 12:13
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In addition to the good suggestions in @Discretelizard's answer:

  1. You can include an ad for this SE in your user profile.

  2. Leaving a comment below questions on other SE's that could be on-topic here.

    • For example, if you're on SE.Physics or SE.ComputerScience and see someone asking about quantum computing, you might leave a comment noting that it could be asked here.

    • This can be a good thing to do even when advertising isn't a concern. Helping to direct users to useful SE's sees like a generally constructive behavior that'd generally benefit the StackExchange network and its users.

    • Usually I'd do this only with newly posted questions.

To note it, it seems we've mentioned this site in the SE.Physics and SE.ComputerScience chats already with starred messages, so it seems likely that most of the regulars are already aware of it.

Most SE's seem to mostly get basic, intro-level questions. Quantum computing's a fairly esoteric topic that can require a lot of study to understand, so we may have a slower adoption rate.

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  • $\begingroup$ For clarity, your point 5 is the 'unless' case in my final paragraph. And the second bullet is IMO the main reason why you should do it. As for the question level, a large amount of difficult questions simply gets unanswered on most sites. (apart from TCS or MO, as those are intended for difficult questions) A reason for this is that answering difficult questions is disincentivised as few users understand difficult answers and hence it is likely that the OP is the only one interacting with the answer (and sometimes not even the OP, especially if the question is 'old'...) $\endgroup$
    – Discrete lizard
    Commented Apr 15, 2018 at 12:59
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  • In addition to point 5 of @Nat's answer, I would subscribe to "quantum" tags in other SE communities and timely leave a comment there:

    (Unfortunately, my account does not allow me to subscribe due to a StackExchange bug.)

  • I also think we could look through the past "quantum" questions in those communities and add the comments with the link to related questions from this community. (However, I am not sure that would result in the link appearing in the "Linked" and "Related" sections.)

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    $\begingroup$ Cross-site links aren't shown in those sections, unfortunately. $\endgroup$
    – Discrete lizard
    Commented Apr 20, 2018 at 8:50

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