3

Why has the number of questions dropped sharply between September 2019 and November 2019 (and never recovered), despite the traffic staying constant?

https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/site-analytics:

enter image description here

3
  • 2
    Probably because you haven't been asking enough questions Franck! ;) Seriously, it's good to see that you are still around.
    – RockPaperLz- Mask it or Casket Mod
    Apr 21, 2020 at 20:12
  • 2
    It might be worth checking the numbers also on a longer timescale. It seems that the rate in which the questions are being asked now is similar to the numbers before 2019, there is a big increase during 2019: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/12851/2020/4/28
    – Martin
    Apr 28, 2020 at 9:42
  • 1
    Hypothesis: with 21000 recommendations we have finally covered every software available on Earth. We just need to keep up with new software.
    – Thomas Weller
    May 12, 2020 at 19:17

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

Good to see you Franck. I'm not certain, but I think it was a result of two factors:

  1. Software Recommendations was flooded with off-topic questions for a while due to questions being directed to our community via a somewhat ambiguous form on other Stack Exchange sites. I think Stack Exchange removed or modified that form around the time our new question volume returned to a more typical level.

  2. I believe the sudden decline was around the time that Stack Exchange treated a moderator very unkindly, and consequently there was a mass exodus of active users and moderators from the Stack Exchange network.

1
  • 1
    What strongly speaks for 1) is a look at the number of answers, which did not change much – so the high amount of "additional questions" was unanswered, most likely because … well, they were closed for being off-topic? Then, I'd assume that closed OT questions don't receive that many page views anymore (especially then being deleted, e.g. by Roomba). So I concur with that. And while 2) was a really bad thing, numbers of visits even increased – which speaks against that having had a big influence concerning Franck's question (though I think it contributed).
    – Izzy Mod
    Apr 26, 2020 at 22:51
1

Probably because too few questions are getting answered. Most of the traffic is probably people checking periodically for answers to questions that never got answered.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .