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I've not followed a proposal all the way though beta before. We have example questions that are submitted in the definition phase.

http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/43283/space-exploration?phase=definition&tab=votes#tab-top

These did not get automatically posted to this beta (or at least not all). So would it be valid to copy one of those? Have other people already done this? Is it impolite to copy someone else's question?

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Are any of them a question you actual have? Then go ahead an ask it.

But "recycling example questions" isn't exactly the goal of a private beta. You're not supposed to be asking questions simply for the sake of filling the site with stuff. Please at least read:

Your New Site: Asking the First Questions

The biggest challenge facing this particular site will be gaining some semblance of expertise. I live on the Space Coast of Florida, and these don't sound like the day-to-day problems folks in the aerospace industry would ask.

The problem is, if this site takes on the tone of a middle school science club, we're not building a site for experts. It's really too early to judge, but this site has the early earmarks of our failed Artificial Intelligence site, with a conspicuous lack of expert-level questions (and answers) posted mostly by the merely curious. I hope we can overcome that hurdle because I like this subject, but I don't find the questions (or answers) all that intriguing or insightful.

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  • $\begingroup$ Hmm... What do you think is the best way to get the expert questions here? $\endgroup$ – Undo Jul 17 '13 at 17:04
  • $\begingroup$ That is a very difficult question to answer if you haven't already attracted the experts to create this site. But in the meantime, you can be having meta discussions on two fronts: (1) how to attract the experts, and (2) how to cull the content that seems to be (in my opinion) watering down the efficacy of this site. $\endgroup$ – Robert Cartaino♦ Jul 17 '13 at 17:07
  • $\begingroup$ @Undo: See meta.space.stackexchange.com/questions/57/… $\endgroup$ – PearsonArtPhoto♦ Jul 17 '13 at 17:20
  • $\begingroup$ @PearsonArtPhoto I think I beat you to it. meta.space.stackexchange.com/questions/56/… $\endgroup$ – Undo Jul 17 '13 at 17:21
  • $\begingroup$ Yours is better, though. I'll deleteify mine. $\endgroup$ – Undo Jul 17 '13 at 17:22
  • $\begingroup$ @Undo: Quality takes time;-) $\endgroup$ – PearsonArtPhoto♦ Jul 17 '13 at 18:07
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    $\begingroup$ @RobertCartaino I can help with point 2 - I am not an expert in Space Exploration (am one in atmospheric physics), so the content I post would and seemingly has invariably "water down the efficacy of the site". I can easily water down my involvement and just stick to what I am good at. $\endgroup$ – user92 Jul 21 '13 at 6:02
  • $\begingroup$ While I agree we need experts, the real question is, what branches are considered as suitable for space exploration? We'll need plumbers, and vulcanizers, and medical experts, biologists, chemists, lawyers,... pretty much from all areas (maybe we could do without telephone sanitizers?), if we're to explore space to advantage of all of mankind. What I'm saying is we shouldn't pretend it's a topic for selected few. If e.g. NASA didn't, maybe they could've saved a pretty penny on Pathfinder’s airbags, realizing something that anyone that ever punctured a bicycle tire could tell them for free. ;) $\endgroup$ – TildalWave Jul 24 '13 at 18:47
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In my experience with other sites, it is perfectly acceptable to post questions from the definition period on the beta site. Most of the questions voted up there will also be good, on-topic questions here.

However, sometimes these questions are not perfectly ready for the site as is. Sometimes these questions do need a bit of refinement, or a bit of background research before they get posted. Some of them might need split into multiple questions, etc. Feel free to post them, but make sure to clean them up and support the question when you do.

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I think it would be courteous to give the individual who originally posted the question some time to post it themselves. Not that it actually matters, but it just seems kinda like stealing to me to post someone else's question. If after a while of activity they haven't posted it, then by all means go ahead.

Don't just post them to seed the site; post them if it's a question that you actually have or one that interests you!

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I would say that it's perfectly OK to use example questions as inspiration for real questions here. There are some, for example, that just made me curious. I would post it here (helping the site grow), and go off and look it up. If I found anything worthwhile, I post it as an answer. I can't see anything wrong with that. Can you? If so, I want to know.

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