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I'm looking for data documenting visits per day, questions, answers and votes per day and any other related data that might be available. Both current and historical.

It feels like usage has gone down over the last couple months and I'm curious if that is an historical pattern for this time of year, or if something else is going on, or if I'm wrong and it just feels that way for no reason. Also, sometimes I just like looking at data.

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2 Answers 2

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Users get access to site analytics at 25k reputation. Diamond moderators have more comprehensive analytics. We're asked to limit how we share the data.

Here's a graph though: it represents the monthly quantity of posts with a 3 month average (i.e. the amount shown for a given month is averaged out using the neighbouring months).

I've removed the Y axis which would show absolute count, but it's still an indicator of proportions. The Y axis doesn't start at zero.

We can see that in 2016 and 2017 there was a September-October-November dip, then things began to climb again in December and January with activity peaking mid-year. The 2018 pattern was pretty different, but currently in 2019 we're still experiencing the first-quarter climb rather than a decline.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Yeah, there's a late March dip I assume is Spring Break, it's a mini-version of the big Christmas dip that regularly happens, but otherwise numbers are healthy/growing. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk Mod
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 23:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ Good to know about the stats. Looks good! I guess I'll have to wait a bit before I get there. \$\endgroup\$
    – lightcat
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 4:35
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Some of that data you will be able to access here once you have obtained the site analytics privilege at 25k reputation.

Three graphs show a timeline of posts, votes, and traffic.

Unfortunately, users with that privilege are not allowed to divulge specific raw data publically:

Since this is a restricted privilege, we'd prefer you not share the raw data.

However, if there is some sort of analysis you want a general conclusion from that should usually be ok. Just hunt down your preferred 25k+ user and ask away!

However, we do hope you will share your analysis of the data with other users on meta. For instance, mature Stack Exchange sites tend to get the majority of their traffic from search engines (and particularly Google). Sharing the current percentage of traffic from search might shed some light on your site's particular strengths or weaknesses.

Stack Exchange Data Explorer (SEDE)

You might find some raw data you can sink your teeth into with the Stack Exchange Data Explorer (SEDE). Specifically this query seems like a good place for you to start.

Data

Doppelgreener already posted Q&A stats, but it is worth also looking at traffic: enter image description here

Note that these are weekly averages.

We only have data from 2018 onwards (which is why it appears to go to 0 at the beginning), but it looks like traffic right now is coming off of a peak, but is still higher than any time last year.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Unrelated question, but since I'm about to hit 25k I'd like to know: in doppelgreener's answer, he omitted the starting point of the Y axis, but you included the starting point as 0. Is that considered taboo? Is there a best practice you're aware of for how to avoid violating the restrictions on sharing the data? \$\endgroup\$
    – Bloodcinder
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 16:15
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Bloodcinder I'm not aware of any formal guidelines we have about sharing the data other than what is in my answer already. I don't really consider the starting point of the axis to be too specific personally and I included it because I was going to address why it was there (but then didn't include that tidbit). Without other points of reference I think "axis is at 0" is about as useful as "axis is not at 0" especially when the only reason it is 0 is because of lack of data \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 16:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ Well knowing that the y-axis starts at 0 allows you to get a sense of the proportion between the quantities from the two lines (i.e something like: around 1 Feb, page views were 4 times the number of new visits, (numbers made up in my example)). Not knowing where the 0 is in the y-axis means that no such comparison can be made between lines, such as when using doppelgreener's answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – Sdjz
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 18:25
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Sdjz you are absolutely correct. However, I don't see that as a huge issue seeing as I could have just come out and said something like your example and that could easily be seen as "sharing my analysis" something explicitly allowed by the guidance. I'll be happy to redact anything if people have an issue though. \$\endgroup\$
    – Rubiksmoose
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 19:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ Oh I don't think it's an issue either. That was just nitpicking really. \$\endgroup\$
    – Sdjz
    Commented Apr 9, 2019 at 20:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ Very cool SEDE, thanks for that! That will give me something to play with. \$\endgroup\$
    – lightcat
    Commented Apr 10, 2019 at 4:38

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