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In a tweet by Mahesh Sathiamoorthy, I saw a chart showing a substantial recent drop:

Two questions: (1) Is this accurate? (2) What does the analogous chart for MathOverflow show?

(I can't remember how to look at site analytics.)

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    $\begingroup$ A blind guess: infighting of the type that's been happening over there since circa Monica is a bad look, irrespective of how you look at it from the outside. I'm all for fighting the good fight, ra ra fight the power and all that, but it's... unseemly to allow things to devolve as far as they have over there, IMO. $\endgroup$
    – Alec Rhea
    Commented Jul 25, 2023 at 22:10
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    $\begingroup$ I don't know how much we can or should disclose, but looking at the admin link provided by @D.W., there is a somewhat similar drop (although, obviously, the graph is more detailed and it is possible to make sense of the exact "fall"). Nevertheless, this means nothing, since it can very well be spammers not using the site as much, or bots not trying to spam the site, or whatever. Statistics without contexts are meaningless. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Jul 25, 2023 at 22:24
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    $\begingroup$ @D.W. According to the help center, the link available to 10k+ users is: mathoverflow.net/site-analytics $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 26, 2023 at 4:20
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    $\begingroup$ according to this post, observablehq.com/@ayhanfuat/the-fall-of-stack-overflow, all three metrics of traffic, votes, and posts, are down over 50%. Surely that suggests it's not just fewer spammers $\endgroup$
    – ziggurism
    Commented Jul 26, 2023 at 4:24
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    $\begingroup$ Somewhat related question (with your answer): The number of on line users at a given moment. In the answer here I have posted number of users who were "active" in some way (at least one post, at least one comment): The number of MO users. (Naturally, this is different from traffic - where you're interested in visitors, including the people who only viewed some page on the site and did nothing else.) $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 26, 2023 at 4:48
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    $\begingroup$ In case some people are interested in stats about number of questions and answer, there are a few related questions: Number of questions posed per day, Does the number of answers really drop over years?, Slight downward trend in Q & A, etc. In fact, back in 2013 a moderator (now a former moderator) suggested "having quarterly or annual usage reports" on MO: What statistics would be interesting for a usage report? $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 26, 2023 at 4:55
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    $\begingroup$ The 20k site analytics for the time period suggest a small but noticeable decline in the number of posts and votes, and a massive sudden drop in traffic in spring 2022. The latter turns out to be the effect of recategorizing the Google analytics cookies. Another change (with unclear effects on the statistics) was the switch to GA4 later the same year. In other words, the statistics are bogus. They cannot be meaningfully compared across longer time spans, as the methodology keeps changing. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 26, 2023 at 7:35
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    $\begingroup$ Just to make it clear, the reputation threshold to see site analytics is 25k, not 10k or 20k, according to mathoverflow.net/help/privileges/site-analytics . $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 28, 2023 at 12:37
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    $\begingroup$ Now on Youtube, heavily memeized $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 29, 2023 at 8:50
  • $\begingroup$ @AsafKaragila During the last 2 years, the participation of some mathematicians has decreased significantly. On the other hand I thiunk there are some journal who do not accept a reference to MO conversations. I think that MO activities is not counted as a serious math activity. To be honest , I had the hope to find collaborators for discussion on the following items but no communication formed in this way(in MO). $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 30, 2023 at 14:47
  • $\begingroup$ mathoverflow.net/questions/219638/… $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 30, 2023 at 14:47
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    $\begingroup$ @Ali: I think it's a good idea to not bother people in general. People come and people go. It is the nature of communities, online ones in particular. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Jul 31, 2023 at 14:25
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    $\begingroup$ @Ali: You don't seem to understand my point. You don't know why they stopped participating. It's their business, and if they want to rejoin, they will rejoin. Full stop. Anything beyond that is off-site harassment which we do not take lightly. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Jul 31, 2023 at 14:33
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    $\begingroup$ @RodrigodeAzevedo: On twitter is correct, In a tweet is correct, On a tweet is incorrect. :-) But thanks for the poster's name. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 5, 2023 at 19:39
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    $\begingroup$ @JosephO'Rourke Corrected! $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 5, 2023 at 19:43

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