34
votes
Unanswered questions as percentage of total – why does CV stand out?
My comments expanded enough to be some kind of answer.
I think there are a number of reasons why the rate might be different - some have been discussed before. On SO or math.SE (which I participate a ...
34
votes
We have a very large & widening gap between questions and answers. How do we fix it?
We need more answers, and therefore answer-writers
There's no escaping that more answers to on-topic questions are required to close the gap.
More active participation in closure queues is a ...

SycoraxMod
- 80.2k
30
votes
Unanswered questions as percentage of total – why does CV stand out?
Some facts
The rate at which questions are answered here has been dropping for years. When we left beta in early 2011 the answer:question ratio was around 1.6:1. It has steadily declined: in ...
whuberMod
- 293k
26
votes
Accepted
My questions don't get an answer - is it a general trend, or am I doing something wrong?
The proportion of unanswered questions is indeed slowly growing because (among other things):
the number of people answering questions is growing more slowly than the number of people asking ...
19
votes
We have a very large & widening gap between questions and answers. How do we fix it?
Downvote
Here is the mouseover text on the downvote button:
The question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful
I'd recommend we be more liberal with actually clicking on ...
18
votes
Unanswered questions as percentage of total – why does CV stand out?
This ends up being a non-answer, but I figured I would share some analysis I did. For a while I've been concerned that the site's continual progress rests on the shoulders of a relatively few ...
18
votes
We have a very large & widening gap between questions and answers. How do we fix it?
We do not have a problem with unanswered questions. We have a problem with low quality questions.
See the below image from this sql script which gives for the monthly answers and questions the 10-log ...
17
votes
Accepted
What is considered an "unanswered question" in Stack Exchange?
Q: Why does the "Unanswered Questions" tab show questions that have answers?
A: The Unanswered Questions tab shows questions that have no answers with a positive score nor an accepted answer....
14
votes
My questions don't get an answer - is it a general trend, or am I doing something wrong?
I now have some experience with CV and other SE venues. I think CV is more challenging than others because questions are more technical and scientific, and also because subspecialization is the rule ...
13
votes
We have a very large & widening gap between questions and answers. How do we fix it?
If a user asks an on-topic, answerable question, will that user get an answer?
Most likely yes (currently ~60% of all questions are answered).
The question graph is biased because the unanswered ...
13
votes
Accepted
Is it allowed to ask questions again if they did not get an answer last time
From a FAQ: How do I get attention for one of my own questions without a good answer?
You can "bump" your question by editing the question to provide status and progress updates resulting ...
13
votes
Are new answerers feeling like they "speak into the void"? And can we help?
1. To what extent is this a common experience of new answerers? Do we lose noticeable number of potentially active participants this way?
I think I felt similarly when I started participating, and it ...
11
votes
Allow moderators to accept answers in old questions from inactive users?
Accepted means accepted by the original poster (OP) of the question: that's an SE-wide definition easy to understand.
The main consequence of good answers not being accepted is some lost reputation ...
11
votes
Accepted
Chat to attract answers?
I suppose you may, but it isn't the preferred way to attract attention to your question. Be aware that most questions aren't answered immediately; it can be a few hours at least before a question is ...
10
votes
What is the "take home" message if I get the tumbleweed badge?
This is an age-old question. Seriously: there's an MSE thread about this that's five years old.
My two personal favorite explanations:
I see it more as a consolation prize. No one looked at your ...
10
votes
Accepted
Is there an ideal time of day to ask new questions?
Looking at the locations of the users with high reputations (which tend to include a lot of people who answer), and filling in those whose locations I know but who don't give one here, it looks like a ...
10
votes
Why do time series questions get such a low response rate?
It looks like I'm one of the more active users in the forecasting and time-series tags. Here is my subjective take.
I very much agree with Nick Cox' comment. Many, if not most of the questions ...
10
votes
Can we remove some of the old questions from the "unanswered questions" board?
To see unanswered questions created last month, just use the search expression
created:1m answers:0
Then you can add other search terms to refine, for example
...
9
votes
Unanswered questions as percentage of total – why does CV stand out?
Here's my take as a relatively new question-answerer, and as someone with far, far less knowledge than our superstar members.
I think you guys are spot-on so far. For instance, my question Computing ...
9
votes
We have a very large & widening gap between questions and answers. How do we fix it?
We need more answers, and therefore answer-writers There's no escaping
that more answers to on-topic questions are required to close the gap.
In my opinion this is the single most important point, ...
9
votes
Accepted
Can (should) I delete a question that gained no attention to re-create it with a simpler formulation?
One clear principle has consistently helped me moderate such situations:
If your intended changes affect only your work, feel free to make them. Indeed, we encourage you to do so. But if they ...
whuberMod
- 293k
8
votes
Simple question needs simple answer but does not attract necessary attention
Crossposting on mathoverflow (which I know is discouraged)
It would be dramatically off topic on mathoverflow, which is for research problems. Unless you are planning to publish in a mathematically-...
8
votes
We have a very large & widening gap between questions and answers. How do we fix it?
I don't think the problem is solvable just by closing more questions or downvoting. I think all users start at a point where they just ask questions, then some of them become knowledgeable enough to ...
8
votes
How should I flag (or otherwise deal with) questions that have not been clarified after comments were left?
Not answering Glen_b's comment does not seem to have anything to do with this question being a candidate for closing. I'd say that this question is simply too vague/too broad, so I closed it (if ...

TimMod
- 117k
7
votes
Accepted
How to decrease the number of unanswered questions?
It is worth considering that an unanswered question is defined as a question that has no upvoted (or accepted) answers and is not closed. Also, the community user 'bumps' one unanswered question per ...
7
votes
Accepted
How should I flag (or otherwise deal with) questions that have not been clarified after comments were left?
As a non-moderator, I think it's sufficient to write a comment asking for clarification & register a close vote at the same time. If a comment already asks for clarification, and you agree with it,...

SycoraxMod
- 80.2k
6
votes
How to decrease the number of unanswered questions?
Should we encourage people with unanswered question to reformulate
their question or to step down a level in the difficulty? Or to expand
furthermore the problem?
Yes we should encourage people ...
6
votes
Are new answerers feeling like they "speak into the void"? And can we help?
To what extent is this a common experience of new answerers? Do we lose noticeable number of potentially active participants this way?
Probably. I certainly answer less because of it (not that I'm ...
5
votes
Accepted
Nearly 40% of questions on Cross Validated are unanswered, is there a way to improve this?
This is out of our control: it would have to be implemented SE-wide by the developers. In addition, it is intrinsic to the SE system. The tenacious and unsung hero badges exist in part to ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
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