Just an update before the official word comes down, but it looks like the transition to Medical Sciences is being approved, and we can start to move the site in that direction.
What does this mean now?
There a few things that will need to happen, (and probably more that I am unaware of).
- Adding/replacing moderators. We will need more moderators, especially in the early stages, as we get aggressive in closing and enforcing the new scope. Ideally, some of these will be licensed medical professionals, as they have a better grasp/scope of knowledge to assist in what is on/off topic and of interest.
- Scope. Actually determining a full scope, changing the "what to ask" pages, making sure that the community is aligned.
- Pruning/closing. There will be an aggressive effort needed to get old questions without answers/marginal/out of new scope questions closed.
When will this happen?
It won't happen overnight, but I expect a meta post from the CM team in the near future detailing this. I know that a couple of sites have done it before, and gone on to be fully graduated, happy sites (Programmers to Software Engineering). It will be a process, but I think that the community can pull through on it.
How do I help?
As noted, we will need some moderators. If you are interested, but can't really commit full time (esp for our medicos), we can talk to the CM team about having extra part time mods. The heavy lifting will be the early stages during the scope change and policing, then it will taper off as the new scope becomes established. And, once we get more high rep users, the burden of most moderation really does shift to them.
Thank you everyone for supporting the site so far, and I'm excited about the new direction!
