# How are we doing?

This post is to help the community track how we're doing as we progress through our private beta into a public beta and hopefully into a full-fledged SE site.

Statistics are provided by the Area51 proposal1. The intent is to provide an update once a week or so, and help the community identify what we need to focus on next. Older answers should be left in place so we have some basis to measure progress against.

1Note: Area51 statistics can lag by a few days and should taken as general guidance only.

The global daily and monthly traffic reports from Quantcast are below. They update whenever the page is loaded so there is no need for any maintenance.

• I was taken aback by the amount of detail that this quantcase site claims to know about our participants! – Floris Feb 17 '15 at 16:07

### Summary

|    Date   | Days in | Q per | Percent  | Avid  | Total | Answer | Visits  | Total |
|           |   beta  |  day  | answered | users | users | ratio  | per day |  Qs   |
|:---------:|:-------:|:-----:|:--------:|:-----:|:-----:|:------:|:-------:|:-----:|
| 26/Jan/15 |     5   |  15.5 |    80%   |   20  |   254 |   1.8  |    154  |       |
| 02/Feb/15 |    12   |   9.8 |    86%   |   30  |   300 |   1.8  |    137  |       |
| 11/Feb/15 |    22   |   6.3 |    85%   |   38  |   496 |   2.0  |    226  |       |
| 17/Feb/15 |    27   |   6.6 |    82%   |   39  |   562 |   2.0  |    331  |       |
| 24/Feb/15 |    35   |   5.4 |    85%   |   42  |   667 |   1.9  |    271  |       |
|  5/Mar/15 |    43   |   4.6 |    89%   |   46  |   805 |   1.9  |    518  |       |
| 12/Mar/15 |    50   |   5.0 |    87%   |   52  |   868 |   1.9  |    276  |       |
| 17/Mar/15 |    56   |   4.7 |    88%   |   52  |   930 |   1.9  |    201  |       |
| 23/Mar/15 |    61   |   4.4 |    87%   |   55  |   996 |   1.9  |    187  |       |
| 01/Apr/15 |    71   |   3.6 |    88%   |   57  | 1,094 |   1.9  |    263  |       |
| 06/Apr/15 |    75   |   3.9 |    88%   |   59  | 1,148 |   1.9  |    263  |       |
| 14/Apr/15 |    83   |   5.1 |    88%   |   65  | 1,268 |   1.9  |    392  |       |
| 20/Apr/15 |    90   |   5.1 |    88%   |   71  | 1,357 |   1.9  |    473  |       |
| 27/Apr/15 |    96   |   4.7 |    87%   |   71  | 1,420 |   1.9  |    496  |       |
|  4/May/15 |   103   |   4.0 |    87%   |   73  | 1,477 |   1.9  |    409  |       |
| 11/May/15 |   110   |   4.0 |    86%   |   75  | 1,555 |   1.9  |    376  |       |
| 19/May/15 |   118   |   4.8 |    86%   |   77  | 1,648 |   1.9  |    512  |       |
| 27/May/15 |   126   |   3.6 |    86%   |   79  | 1,745 |   1.9  |    468  |       |
|  1/Jun/15 |   131   |   3.6 |    86%   |   79  | 1,745 |   1.9  |    468  |       |
|  8/Jun/15 |   138   |   5.0 |    85%   |   79  | 1,882 |   1.9  |    494  |   675 |
| 15/Jun/15 |   143   |   5.3 |    85%   |   81  | 1,971 |   1.9  |    524  |   707 |
| 22/Jun/15 |   152   |   4.3 |    86%   |   86  | 2,035 |   1.9  |    577  |   717 |
| 29/Jun/15 |   159   |   4.5 |    86%   |   89  | 2,120 |   1.9  |    592  |   750 |
|  6/Jul/15 |   166   |   5.8 |    86%   |   92  | 2,195 |   1.9  |    607  |   793 |
| 13/Jul/15 |   173   |   4.6 |    86%   |   96  | 2,253 |   1.9  |    621  |   808 |
| 20/Jul/15 |   180   |   3.8 |    86%   |   98  | 2,327 |   1.9  |    632  |   839 |
| 27/Jul/15 |   188   |   4.1 |    85%   |  104  | 2,407 |   1.9  |    658  |   864 |
|  6/Aug/15 |   197   |   4.9 |    85%   |  108  | 2,501 |   1.9  |    707  |   908 |
| 10/Aug/15 |   201   |   4.5 |    85%   |  108  | 2,543 |   1.9  |    731  |   918 |
| 17/Aug/15 |   208   |   5.9 |    86%   |  116  | 2,642 |   1.8  |    731  |   980 |
| 24/Aug/15 |   215   |   5.2 |    86%   |  116  | 2,714 |   1.8  |    861  | 1,009 |
| 31/Aug/15 |   222   |   5.1 |    85%   |  119  | 2,802 |   1.9  |    918  | 1,036 |
|:---------:|:-------:|:-----:|:--------:|:-----:|:-----:|:------:|:-------:|:-----:|
|    Date   | Days in | Q per | Percent  | Avid  | Total | Answer | Visits  | Total |
|           |   beta  |  day  | answered | users | users | ratio  | per day |  Qs   |
|:---------:|:-------:|:-----:|:--------:|:-----:|:-----:|:------:|:-------:|:-----:|
|  8/Sep/15 |   230   |   5.1 |    85%   |  129  | 2,897 |   1.8  |  1,158  | 1,077 |
| 14/Sep/15 |   236   |   4.6 |    86%   |  133  | 2,939 |   1.8  |  1,398  | 1,092 |
| 21/Sep/15 |   243   |   3.9 |    86%   |  135  | 3,009 |   1.8  |  1,323  | 1,119 |
| 28/Sep/15 |   250   |   4.4 |    86%   |  141  | 3,081 |   1.8  |  1,323  | 1,149 |
|  5/Oct/15 |   257   |   5.4 |    86%   |  142  | 3,191 |   1.8  |  1,380  | 1,188 |
| 12/Oct/15 |   264   |   5.1 |    86%   |  145  | 3,254 |   1.8  |  1,457  | 1,210 |
| 19/Oct/15 |   271   |   5.1 |    86%   |  149  | 3,336 |   1.8  |  1,457  | 1,239 |
| 26/Oct/15 |   278   |   5.1 |    85%   |  150  | 3,429 |   1.8  |  1,519  | 1,267 |
|  2/Nov/15 |   285   |   5.6 |    85%   |  152  | 3,511 |   1.8  |  1,545  | 1,307 |
|  9/Nov/15 |   292   |   5.2 |    85%   |  156  | 3,595 |   1.8  |  1,545  | 1,330 |
| 16/Nov/15 |   299   |   5.6 |    86%   |  156  | 3,667 |   1.8  |  1,562  | 1,359 |
| 30/Nov/15 |   313   |   5.9 |    86%   |  162  | 3,852 |   1.8  |  1,408  | 1,421 |
| 07/Dec/15 |   320   |   6.1 |    86%   |  163  | 3,928 |   1.8  |  1,292  | 1,458 |
| 14/Dec/15 |   327   |   5.7 |    86%   |  164  | 4,011 |   1.8  |  1,368  | 1,481 |
| 28/Dec/15 |   342   |   4.6 |    86%   |  167  | 4,139 |   1.7  |  1,041  | 1,522 |
|  4/Jan/16 |   348   |   4.6 |    86%   |  168  | 4,207 |   1.8  |    771  | 1,543 |
| 12/Jan/16 |   356   |   5.4 |    86%   |  168  | 4,311 |   1.8  |    968  | 1,580 |
| 18/Jan/16 |   362   |   5.4 |    85%   |  171  | 4,375 |   1.8  |  1,293  | 1,601 |
| 01/Feb/16 |   376   |   5.6 |    85%   |  176  | 4,624 |   1.8  |  1,755  | 1,671 |
| 08/Feb/16 |   383   |   6.3 |    85%   |  178  | 4,717 |   1.8  |  1,687  | 1,709 |
| 22/Feb/16 |   398   |   6.7 |    85%   |  183  | 4,960 |   1.8  |  1,772  | 1,786 |
| 07/Mar/16 |   411   |   6.4 |    85%   |  186  | 5,135 |   1.8  |  1,847  | 1,860 |
| 21/Mar/16 |   425   |   9.2 |    84%   |  191  | 5,433 |   1.8  |  1,910  | 1,974 |
| 25/Apr/16 |   460   |   5.8 |    84%   |  203  | 5,900 |   1.7  |  1,984  | 2,131 |
|  2/May/16 |   467   |   7.0 |    84%   |  204  | 6,004 |   1.7  |  2,013  | 2,173 |
| 17/May/16 |   483   |   6.2 |    84%   |  207  | 6,185 |   1.7  |  1,861  | 2,173 |
|  6/Jun/16 |   498   |   6.5 |    83%   |  211  | 6,355 |   1.7  |  1,714  | 2,323 |
| 15/Jun/16 |   511   |   5.1 |    83%   |  211  | 6,503 |   1.8  |  1,724  | 2,372 |
| 02/Aug/16 |   560   |   4.9 |    82%   |  220  | 7,067 |   1.7  |  1,801  | 2,596 |
| 28/Sep/16 |   616   |   5.0 |    81%   |  227  | 7,637 |   1.7  |  2,837  | 2,853 |
| 26/Oct/16 |   644   |   6.1 |    81%   |  232  | 7,938 |   1.7  |  3,268  | 2,987 |
| 04/Jan/17 |   714   |   4.6 |    80%   |  239  | 8,728 |   1.7  |  2,189  | 3,356 |
| 07/Feb/17 |   748   |   7.1 |    80%   |  247  | 9,117 |   1.7  |  3,870  | 3,561 |
| 05/Sep/18 |  1324   |   6.7 |    77%   |  339  |16,203 |   1.7  |  4,454  | 6,672 |
|           |         |       |          |       |       |        |         |       |


Please remember to keep these numbers in perspective. They are more for "edutainment" than anything else.

Does this site have a chance of succeeding? Be careful about using these stats to gauge the quality of the site overall. For example, if the % answered is really high with this small a group of users, that could mean either the questions are terribly basic or generalized, or the folks here are just skimming the surface in their answers (or worse, just guessing). Same goes with the answer ratio. Don't force the activity here just to "hit the numbers." It usually does more harm than good.

• It was great that Robert got the "good" levels for some of the site categories lowered. Still, we're only in private beta; we'll have different issues as time goes on. – HDE 226868 Jan 26 '15 at 19:30
• I haven't been in a private beta before, but I feel like our % answered and answer ratio are largely a product of the overall scope of engineering and the size of the community so far. There have been a handful of questions I think I can half answer, but it would be a partial guess, and I'm guessing that's the case with a lot of the specialized questions. As the community grows, hopefully the expertise will as well. – Trevor Archibald Jan 26 '15 at 19:35
• @TrevorArchibald I agree. I think it's better to leave a question unanswered than to reply with a guess, loosely informed by a wikipedia search, which we are all sometimes tempted to do. As the community grows, we'll have high quality answers to diverse questions. Poorly informed answers in the mean time may scare off experts that we'd like to recruit. – Ethan48 Jan 26 '15 at 20:08
• Does this site have a chance of succeeding? Be careful about using these stats to gauge the quality of the site overall. For example, if the % answered is really high with this small a group of users, that could mean either the questions are terribly basic or generalized, or the folks here are just skimming the surface in their answers (or worse, just guessing). Same goes with the answer ratio. Don't force the activity here just to "hit the numbers." It usually does more harm than good. – Robert Cartaino Jan 27 '15 at 14:09

What we need is an active community with lots of expert contributors. Those Area51 stats were designed a long time ago as attempts at proxies for that, and don't do the job very well.

We who visit the site frequently have a much better idea of whether or not we're an active community with lots of expert contributors. Lots of high quality answers is a good sign. A busy meta and chat is a good sign. A rising number of visitors is a good sign, and the Quantcast figures are the best guide for that - but they won't be available and meaningful for another month or two.

And if you like the look of some content to date, and that prompts you to send a private beta invitation to experts you know - and, when the private beta is over, it prompts you to share a link to it with them - that's a really good sign

• I've sent a couple private beta invites and I think that's a very good idea. The more smart people we can get on this site and the broader the breadth of experience the better! – Olek Wojnar Jan 30 '15 at 1:04

There are some good queries on data.stackexchange.com. I have listed some of them below. If you have never looked at the data explorer, scroll down past the code and hit the "Run Query" button.

• Up and Down votes listed by day of the week - query
• Total questions and answers per month - query
• Thank you for list of queries. – Mahendra Gunawardena Feb 22 '15 at 17:58

I did a quick analysis of how engineering.beta is performing during first 30 Days.

Disclaimer: The day 1 & 2 number of questions are included in this analysis.

Average: 7.833

Stdev: 5.0383

Charts

Number of Questions posted each day during the first 30 days

Frequency Histogram of Questions per Day

Note: Bin size is 2

Bell Curve - Original Data first 30 days

Bell Curve - Random Data for the first 30 days

2000 Random Data points based on original Data

Reference: