I went to do 200_success's query over on Code Review locally, and I got 4th quintile has 1.83 posts per user, 5th has 8.7. Practically 50/50 for Q vs. A, average rep was 112 for the 4th and 294 for the 5th.
So those are somewhat low-volume numbers of a sort but for example you're not far behind Ask Ubuntu. That said, let's bring some reputation distribution into this analysis.
Categorizing an avid user as we usually do, being one with at least 150 reputation, we look at how many folks are at different tiers (namely those with 150-200, 200-500, 500-1000, 1000-2000, etc).
Across all of the other sites in a consistency I didn't actually expect so much, about 30-33% of avid users are in 150-200, with ~40% of them in the 200-500 range and another 15% or so in the 500-1000 range.
In general, this lends itself that 2/3 of the avid users make it past 200 reputation, and a quarter of the avid users make it past 500 reputation. So we have about a third that don't make it past 200.
(It'll be easier for me to just bookmark a conversation than you starring everything)
In beta, you mean? ;-) I agree. We still need more voting, which just takes one click. However, in my hastiness to look over old questions that need closing, I didn't take the time to upvote those posts.
that was weird I was reading and then I went to star something and then I read the comment about bookmarking the conversation rather than starring everything....lol @GraceNote @
MIA numbers, well the site is indeed almost 3 years old so it's not particularly young. That said I don't know how comparable the numbers are betwixt yours and graduated sites but in most cases you guys double the percentage missing or worse in every single time block (week, month, two months, three months, six months)
I am trying to get my Cousin to come in and work on some ruby questions, and I am sure that he will probably incorporate it into his lesson plans or something that will help bring more people in
English has somewhat comparable levels but there's a bit of a difference in that they can more readily afford to be missing that many people, so to speak, because their brackets aren't nearly as bottom-heavy.
Indeed. You guys aren't terrible about retention - 200_success is right in that the vast majority of traffic is going to be drive-by and in many cases we don't even see those numbers in these analyses. A small portion of the community is responsible for a chunk of things while the multitude of one-shots contributes another chunk in its own right. The problems lie in the sizes of these portions.
I suppose the drive-bys would mostly be askers who don't have any interest in sticking around. Many answers, I suppose, are just there to answer (no questions posted). I think we need those users retained, as not having enough reviewers for certain languages will hurt us if such questions are asked.
Only one quarter is posting more than once, which may match other sites, but the problem is that that quarter of the community isn't appearing to have any growth to its number. That quarter on other sites is equal to all of your avid users, because enough people are sticking around.
The thing we're looking at is the rather large distance we see betwixt you and hitting what we look for in graduating. That's not a bad thing, though. Graduating is a very high bar for a reason - there's not actually a harm in being an "Eternal Beta".
