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I noticed this post and I was fascinated by the answers given.

I am currently a 2nd year PhD student in Statistics and this page has helped me tremendously, up to the point where I decided to create a user and participate actively in the community.

I feel that getting badges and scores motivates me to to further participate but there are other factors that play in

  • I intend to put my CV profile on my Curriculum Vitae (CV) for various reasons.
  • I like to participate in discussions on topics that I am fascinated about with like-minded people. I also like the open criticism/academic vibe in the discussions.
  • I feel that I am learning and becoming more sharp in the subjects the more I participate.
  • I feel a sense of approval and recognition when I'm here.

When one looks into how many badges are awarded, there is an obvious trend. I.e. there seems to be a large stream of new users, that create profiles and then do not participate all too much.

There are rather few badges that have been given out for comments and voting specifically.

I feel that there are some things that can be done to further motivate new users to use this stack exchange and participate.

So my question is: Have these things been reviewed/discussed, are there any remedies that have worked in the past? Do we need to expose new users to other motivation factors?

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    $\begingroup$ I'm a fourth year undergrad, and I honestly echo each one of your sentiments. I feel like this is a pretty accurate portrayal of why (students) get involved in the community. This is an important conversation, and I hope this question gains some traction. $\endgroup$
    – Chris C
    Sep 24, 2015 at 13:57

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I might be totally wrong, but I think more activity in the Ten Fold chat room would be a positive force. After reading the answers to this question on Meta it is clear that many people would disagree.

I'm more active on DBA.SE than here for a variety of reasons. One of the any reasons why I enjoy spending time over there is the chat. Chat lets me rub shoulders with the giants, gain insight into the life of a full time DBA, highlight questions/answers that are exceptional or interesting, gives a palatable feel of community, etc. In short it adds a social draw which I value. This social draw feeds more engagement, at least for me, into the site.

I do work from home so that may be part of the reason why I appreciate the social draw.

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  • $\begingroup$ This 2 year old meta post you link to is very relevant. This is exactly what I have observed. I do not know what metric SE is using in general but I think it would be nice to look at the churn rate of new users and try to do some changes to try to affect it in a positive way. $\endgroup$
    – Gumeo
    Sep 24, 2015 at 15:15
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    $\begingroup$ I dont think it is reasonable to expect that a high ratio of new users will become regulars. I have an account on maybe $\approx 40$ SE sites but regular on only 3-4, the other sites only for an occasional question. $\endgroup$
    – kjetil b halvorsen Mod
    Sep 25, 2015 at 12:11
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    $\begingroup$ Although it will maybe never be a high percentage, I still think that we can do somethings to affect the churn rate. I think that it might not be w.r.t. current users, but rather exposing the site to more people in the field. $\endgroup$
    – Gumeo
    Sep 25, 2015 at 12:30
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    $\begingroup$ While some people aren't going to be drawn to chat rooms, no-one's going to be put off CV by other peoples' using a chat-room: so any ideas you have to stimulate activity in Ten Fold will, I'm sure, be well received. $\endgroup$
    – Scortchi - Reinstate Monica Mod
    Sep 25, 2015 at 16:09
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    $\begingroup$ There could certainly be a subset of users who might find a more active chat an attraction, and I am curious to hear suggestions about how to do that. $\endgroup$
    – Glen_b
    Oct 3, 2015 at 10:34

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