Proposing "Data Science" sub-forum (again)

[micseydel]

This has already been discussed (see: https://python-forum.io/Thread-Data-Scie...-sub-forum) and lead to "stalemate" as someone put it. At the time I was pro-new forum but not strongly enough to address the anti-reasons that are in that thread. I'm more inclined toward advocating strongly for a new forum at this point.

The reason I have is the same as before - like GUI threads, I as soon as I see the data science modules, I lose interest in the thread, so I would to be able to just "mark as read" a whole forum. I feel like we get more data science questions than games programming, and I expect that will only increase for the foreseeable future. I think it's worth having its own forum.

Rather than address all the anti-reasons in the other thread, I will request that if people still feel strongly about them that they post here again and I address it fresh.

[ichabod801]

The original thread seems to have happened while I was on hiatus. I think this would be a good idea. We certainly get a lot of questions in that area, and I think it would be a benefit to the forum to organize them somewhere. I try to answer these, but they are often beyond me. I'd hoped to do more Python statistical work in retirement, but I've been pulled away by other things, so I'm not as aware of all the modules as I would like to be as a question answerer.

Maybe a broader title would be good, to pull in other kinds of scientific computing using similar libraries. But that may just be my distaste for the term 'data scientist' showing.

Edit: By a quick scan of titles, I see four posts that would go in this category on the first page on General Coding Help.

[metulburr]

im starting to agree that we need a new subforum for data science or scientific computing or whatever you guys want to call it. There has been a lot of it lately to warrant the need for to split it up from general coding. Im on the same level of having no interest in it and mark it read as soon as i know what it is.

The more active users rise, the more we might need to create more subforums to split up general coding. I think at this point in time, it is a good play. If the work load becomes too intensive to organize threads for the number of users, then that is a sign of not enough mods. I dont believe we are there yet, even after creating this new subforum.

We just need to make a defined line in the descriptions to help people know where to post their thread. As well as ensure all mods and admins know what to move there and move out of there.

[snippsat]

I agree that subforum for "Data Science" can be made.
It's one of the biggest topic these days,and Python is probably the language that used most for this.
There can also maybe be a sticky post that help people with install pandas,numpy,scipy,matplotlib,scikit-learn..ect.
Just had a Thread about here,
Anaconda are the many that use to get most these libraries pre-installed,but also for Windows(python.org version) is Gohlke a good help.

For other subforum like web-scraping,Raspberry Pi,..ect,i would still be restricted to create subforum.
Because these topic comes i waves,i think "Data Science" will be bigger in the long run.

[Larz60+]

Quote from Turing award winner Jim Gray:

Data science as a "fourth paradigm" of science (empirical, theoretical, computational and now data-driven) and asserted that "everything about science is changing because of the impact of information technology" and the data deluge.

[micseydel]

It's been a few days and I haven't seen complaints so I created it. I considered populating it with old posts, but decided it's not worth the effort.

[ichabod801]

Could we name it 'Scientific and Statistical Computing' instead? Or are you set on 'Data Science'?

[snippsat]

Could we name it 'Scientific and Statistical Computing' instead? Or are you set on 'Data Science'?

I also think that "Data Science" is the name we should stick with,because that's what most people would recognize.
"Data science" is of course just about as broad of a term as they come,that span a lot also Statistical Computing.
In "Data Science" forum description we cold do more specific description of "Data Science" and Python tool often used for this.
The free book Python Data Science Handbook bye @Jake VanderPlas can give some tips what many start with when exploring Data Science with Python.

[metulburr]

I was going to populate it with old posts until i searched on the forum for just numpy alone; and returned 37 pages of threads. That alone would not be hard as you can select all threads to move to a different subforum. However i would think you would have to look at each one to justify whether it really is suppose to be in there or whether someone just responded with the word "numpy". I have a lot of free time but that is probably the most boring mundane job ever.

Question: if the thread is pertaining to numpy, but is in Homework...would it remain in homework or be moved to data science?

[micseydel]

Question: if the thread is pertaining to numpy, but is in Homework...would it remain in homework or be moved to data science?

As a general rule, I prioritize homework over other sections.

Could we name it 'Scientific and Statistical Computing' instead? Or are you set on 'Data Science'?

I was thinking like snippsat, I expect that "data science" is more recognizable. That said, I'm not dead-set on it. As far as I'm concerned you can change it, and at some point in the future we can change it again and see if we subjectively notice a difference in people posting in the right place (unless you want to perform scientific and statistical computing on the forum ;) ).