<p>I still oppose this.  I really sympathize with the difficulties in getting quality information about data sources, but I don't believe that this site is the appropriate venue.</p>

<p>There's a reason why the Data StackExchange site is failing: data sourcing questions are boring. People don't want to open up a screen full of questions like</p>

<ul>
<li>"Where can I get data on X?"</li>
<li>"Where can I get data on X, but from 1970-1978?"</li>
<li>"Where can I get data on X in HDF5?"</li>
</ul>

<p>This site works because there's a good probability that any user can click on any question and either be able to answer it or be able to learn something from it. Domain-specific data sourcing questions are, by definition, useless to users outside of that domain. The same could be said of language-specific programming questions, which is why we have a similar policy for migrating those elsewhere.</p>

<p>Following on your bar analogy, opening Stats.SE to data sourcing questions would be like bringing busloads of grandparents to the bar. I love my grandma, but there's no way I want her and forty of her dearest friends in my favorite pub. They'll take up too much room, distract me from what I'm there for, and eventually change the very nature of the place into something I don't enjoy. Sure, they'll love it for a while - until all their grandkids stop showing up!</p>

<p>I think the reason why GIS and other domain Q&amp;A sites are more open to and (I believe) the correct venues for these types of questions is that they only have to deal with their own grannies. That keeps the volume to a manageable level and lets the site carry on its main purposes. We have no basis for limiting the volume or topic of those requests here, so they might just inundate us (especially around final exam time, I suspect).</p>

<p>For me, the key struggle of this site is <strong>keeping the experts interested</strong>.  And the key to that is, I think, following this fundamental guideline in our FAQ: "If the question requires statistical expertise to be answered, ask it here". Data sourcing questions usually require a wholly different, domain-specific sorts of expertise. It happens that many of our excellent members have expertise in many domains (programming, too), but that's not why they're here - so even though it might be a useful and convenient place to ask data sourcing or programming questions, I think we have to honor the purpose of this venue to preserve its quality.</p>
