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How long does the site need to keep an average of four questions/day? Do I have that number right? before moving out of Beta?

Can those who are more active commit to 4 questions/week on the main site each plus those posed by new-comers until then?

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  • I understand questions might not be the only thing, but I'm assuming that if more questions will drive more viewers than other things will improve along with the increase in questions.
    – balanced mama
    Nov 27 '12 at 1:30
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Better idea, commit to finding one new active user a week. Particularly, a parent that has questions to ask! :)

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I can see where you're going with this.

First, I don't exactly know the time period that is used to calculate the moving average on the beta dashboard, http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/4861/parenting

But let's say it's 14 days. If that's true, your plan would suggest that we provide 15 new questions per day for 14 days. That's 210 questions.

Now add several days more that are needed to keep the goal "reached" and trigger (and process) the out-of-beta transition. Maybe another ten days, or 150 questions.

We're already looking at a stunning number of new questions. Some of these will probably be duplicates, or closed for various reasons, so expect to provide 10% more than planned. (Are you still adding the numbers?)

This is a monumental task that cannot be orchestrated by us on purpose. If you can pull that off, you should write a book. (Seriously!) No, it has to come naturally, with a natural growth in users and usage.

Besides, imagine that we pulled it off. After a month of hard work, the average is likely to fall again, maybe to double its original level but still far short of the intended threshold. Where does that leave us? Would we stand exposed to our own coup? That is not true to the intention of this site.

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    It is also important to keep in mind that reaching the target stats does not automatically take us out of beta status. Instead, the staff at Stack Exchange monitor and evaluate, and, when they are comfortable that we really are ready for graduation, they start the process of creating the site design. We'd have to keep our numbers up far longer than what would be required to reach 15 questions per day in the stats (15/day is the target listed as "healthy").
    – user420
    Nov 27 '12 at 13:23
  • Wish I remembered where I got the number "four." Point taken though. Still, even if it increased activity for each of us just to commit to a few questions a week for some period of time, wouldn't the bump be a good thing?
    – balanced mama
    Nov 27 '12 at 14:41
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    @balancedmama: It would absolutely be a good thing. But keep in mind that some of us have been using this site for 1½ years now, and we have racked our brains for good questions. We already post all we can think of -- coming up with good, useful, interesting questions is HARD.
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
    Nov 27 '12 at 14:53
  • Yes, you do sort of hit a wall. Especially if the questions aren't genuinely things your are wondering about because of an actual situation in your own life.
    – balanced mama
    Nov 27 '12 at 15:02
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    @balancedmama: We call those seed questions. They can be a great way to get started but they have their own pitfalls.
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
    Nov 27 '12 at 15:08

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