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Reviewing the site's health statistics, I notice considerably low user participation. Here are several key points¹ of concern that look troubling for me:

  • Edits are critically low: Only 13 users have edited someone else's posts more than 10 times in their life;
  • Voting is very low: barely 100 users have voted 10 times;
  • Meta participation is also low: we have only 78 questions, most of which are actually discussed among maybe 10 users;
  • Close-voting and flagging: Most closed questions are being closed single-handedly by a moderator, only a few receive 1-2 close-votes prior to moderator's closure, almost none get closed by 5 regular users' close-votes;
  • Review activity looks troubling:
    • Close Votes:
      • Statistics show very low activity;
      • Vote history one, two, three show that some users automatically vote for Leave Open — allegedly, without actually reviewing the post;
    • Reopen Votes:
      • Statistics indicate that only few users participate at all;
      • Vote history one, two, three show that some users simply vote for Reopen — allegedly, without actually reviewing the post;
  • Tag synonyms have been suggested, approved, and merged by a single person (92 of 100);
  • Moderation activity: one Moderator has not logged in since December 2017, and two others (including myself) are not sufficiently active (the above open issues remain unsolved);
  • Personal concern: due to changes in my personal life, I'm going to resign from moderation in the near future.

Now, to the question: what practical steps can be taken to increase the users' participation?

In addition to the concerns above, we have some options eliminated due to an extreme pressure by colleagues. For instance, it prevents me from posting advertisement-like Meta posts because they become heavily criticized — that much so I have given up getting myself involved in such kind of discussions.

Is there another way to address the users (especially new users) to encourage them into a more active site participation?

¹) Some links require a certain reputation to access; I hope I have not posted any links to Mod-only pages.

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  • I cannot update your question, thus, update numbers yourself, please: * only 17 users have edited ... * only 113 users have voted at least 10 times * we have only 79 questions * Moderation activity link is 404 for non-moderator.
    – myroslav
    Jun 18, 2018 at 20:28
  • I do try to review, flag, cast all kinds of votes, and edit worthy answers. The thing is I can't visit this site every day, the best I can offer several or maybe sometimes more often times per month, though unlikely. And I think this applies to most high reputation users. But the majority visits this site to ask one or maybe two questions and they leave, they don't have goals or any desire to contribute in any way to this community.
    – improbable
    Dec 22, 2020 at 17:25
  • The lack of activity is the direct consequence of the fact that Ukrainian and this SE isn't popular enough to have a sufficient and sustainable community around it.
    – improbable
    Dec 22, 2020 at 17:27
  • @improbable, thank you for the observation and also for your participation and input. Yes, the problem can't be solved by an effort of a single user. The question is mostly about how can we encourage more people to act here.
    – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
    Dec 22, 2020 at 20:44
  • @bytebuster the idea of my stream of thoughts was to convey the answer to this very question - unfortunately, there isn't much we can do to affect this directly, in order for the participation to grow naturally the community must grow.
    – improbable
    Dec 22, 2020 at 21:41
  • Whatever we can do likely won't encourage existing users who are not willing to contribute in the first place to start contributing, but new users might, it all comes down to a community structure.
    – improbable
    Dec 22, 2020 at 21:45
  • All other community structures are essentially the same, doesn't matter if that's SO or UA SE. There is a percentage of highly active users who actually do most of the heavy lifting, some active ones, less active, and those who ask 1 or 2 questions and leave. You don't and can't really encourage the shifting from category to category effectively beyond standard gamification of the service, the natural and most effective expansion of categories above happens primarily through community growth, not through encouragement.
    – improbable
    Dec 22, 2020 at 21:51

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