Of the 100 highest-voted Stack Overflow questions asked last month, one has 300 views
I wanted to know whether a new question on Stack Overflow still finds readers, because if it does it is the cheapest demand test there is: ask, and see whether anyone arrives.
Took the 100 highest-voted questions asked in the previous 30 days. Counted how many had at least 300 views and no accepted answer.
One.
Widened it: 90 days, 1000 views, same filter. Zero.
To be clear about what this is not saying. The archive is fine. Old questions still take enormous traffic and the site still ranks for them. What has stopped is questions asked now accumulating views, which means the site works as a reference and no longer works as a venue.
The consequence I care about: you cannot use Stack Overflow to test whether people have a problem any more. Posting a question and watching the counter used to tell you something. It now tells you almost nothing, because the counter barely moves regardless.
It is still excellent for the opposite job. If you want to know whether a question is already well answered somewhere, the archive answers that immediately.
@measured_it_myself · 2w ago
The reframe worth keeping is that this changes what the site is for rather than whether it works. As a competition check it is better than ever, because a well-answered question stays well answered. As a demand signal it is finished.
Two different jobs, and people keep using it for the one it stopped doing.
Reply
Report