It’s that time of the year again! As we wave goodbye to last year and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the preceding calendar year.
As most of you here might be aware, sites on the Stack Exchange network are moderated somewhat differently to other sites on the web:
We designed the Stack Exchange network engine to be mostly self-regulating, in that we amortize the overall moderation cost of the system across thousands of teeny-tiny slices of effort contributed by regular, everyday users.
-- A Theory of Moderation
That doesn't eliminate the need for having moderators altogether, but it does mean that the bulk of moderation work is carried out by regular folks — folks like you. Every bit of time and effort y'all contribute to the site gives you access to more privileges you can use to help in this effort, all of which produce a cumulative effect that makes a big difference in ensuring Stack Exchange sites remain a valuable source of high-quality content on the web.
So as we say goodbye to 2023 (and January 2024… ahem) and move into 2024, let us look back at what we accomplished as a community... by looking at some exciting stats. Below is a breakdown of moderation actions performed on Cross Validated over the past 12 months:
| Action | Moderators | Community User¹ | Community² |
|---|---|---|---|
| All comments on a post moved to chat | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Answer flags handled | 1,443 | 304 | 0 |
| Answers flagged | 86 | 298 | 1,353 |
| Bounties canceled | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Comment flags handled | 1,087 | 104 | 11 |
| Comments deleted⁸ | 1,950 | 58 | 4,983 |
| Comments flagged | 713 | 8 | 481 |
| Comments undeleted | 35 | 0 | 0 |
| Escalations to the Community Manager team | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Posts bumped | 0 | 8,230 | 0 |
| Posts deleted⁷ | 977 | 8,189 | 3,522 |
| Posts locked | 39 | 294 | 0 |
| Posts undeleted | 70 | 0 | 400 |
| Posts unlocked | 5 | 48 | 0 |
| Question flags handled⁶ | 692 | 917 | 6 |
| Questions closed | 2,821 | 2,484 | 66 |
| Questions flagged⁶ | 157 | 60 | 1,585 |
| Questions merged | 15 | 0 | 0 |
| Questions migrated | 58 | 67 | 0 |
| Questions protected | 19 | 15 | 2 |
| Questions reopened | 179 | 117 | 5 |
| Questions unprotected | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Revisions redacted | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Tag highlight language set | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Tag synonyms created | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Tag synonyms proposed | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Tags merged | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Tasks reviewed⁵: "Close votes" queue | 623 | 0 | 5,646 |
| Tasks reviewed⁵: "First answers" queue | 39 | 0 | 2,377 |
| Tasks reviewed⁵: "First questions" queue | 209 | 0 | 9,638 |
| Tasks reviewed⁵: "Late answers" queue | 13 | 0 | 1,202 |
| Tasks reviewed⁵: "Low quality posts" queue | 49 | 0 | 1,118 |
| Tasks reviewed⁵: "Reopen votes" queue | 207 | 0 | 1,296 |
| Tasks reviewed⁵: "Suggested edits" queue | 138 | 65 | 2,094 |
| Tasks reviewed⁵: "Triage" queue | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| User banned from review | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| User review-bans lifted early | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| User suspensions lifted early | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Users contacted | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| Users deleted | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Users destroyed⁴ | 1,650 | 0 | 0 |
| Users suspended³ | 14 | 87 | 0 |
Footnotes
¹ This refers to the automated systems otherwise known as user #-1.
² This refers to the membership of Cross Validated without diamonds next to their names.
³ The system will suspend users under three circumstances: when a user is recreated after being previously suspended, when a user is recreated after being destroyed for spam or abuse, and when a network-wide suspension is in effect on an account.
⁴ A "destroyed" user is deleted along with all that they had posted: questions, answers, comments. Generally used as an expedient way of getting rid of spam.
⁵ This counts every review that was submitted (not skipped) - so the 2 suggested edits reviews needed to approve an edit would count as 2, the goal being to indicate the frequency of moderation actions. This also applies to flags, etc.
⁶ Includes close flags (but not close or reopen votes). The community² can handle these flags by at least one person voting to close a question that has a close flag.
⁷ This ignores numerous deletions that happen automatically in response to some other action.
⁸ This includes comments deleted by their own authors (which also account for some number of handled comment flags).
Further reading:
Wanna see how these numbers have changed over time? We posted a similar report here last year: 2022: a year in moderation
You can also check out this report on other sites
Or peruse detailed information on the number of questions closed and reopened across all sites
Wishing everyone a happy 2024! ^_^
