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 ...
- 262k
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 ...
- 262k
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 ...
- 99.4k
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 ...
- 15.4k
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 ...
- 49.8k
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....
- 95.6k
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 ...
- 2,314
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 ...
- 3,070
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 ...
- 103
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 ...
- 13.2k
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 ...
- 50k
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 ...
- 101
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 ...
- 262k
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 ...
- 99.4k
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
...
- 66.4k
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 ...
- 11.6k
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, ...
- 8,516
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-...
- 262k
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 ...
- 16.1k
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 ...
- 28k
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 ...
- 2,004
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