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I recently came across data stackexchange. I was really surprised to notice that 'ASK Patents' is at bottom.

accepted posts and post count across database

is that query true? How can we improve over it?

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Yes, sadly, that query does look accurate. I was a bit wary at first of the possibility that it could be missing some sites, but it doesn't look like that's the case.

It's probably resultant from us getting a lot of "drive-by" traffic, where users come here, often direct from Google Patents, ask a question, then forget to come back to see if and how their questions were answered. Robert Cartaino, a Stack Exchange employee, expressed interest in another answer in changing that dynamic.

A big part of fixing that will likely be just working to build the community up. That's not a small task, nor is it one that will happen overnight. And I know Stack Exchange and I are always open to suggestions about how to work to build that community. But the simple answer is just to make sure we keep the site clean with as much high quality content as possible, then hopefully we'll attract attention of more experts, and eventually we'll build a steady economy of questions and answers.

I wish I had some brilliant insight to lend, but I don't. I've been thinking about this since you posted it, trying to come up with the best answer I could. But it's a really hard problem to solve. Continue posting solid content, and hopefully more and more people will start catching onto how the system works, and we can become a thriving community.

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  • 1, how about a weekly reminder, newsletter type mail to user on unaccepted answers. 2. A banner for weekly Chat Gala on recent patent cases or site progress. – Pushpak Apr 10 '15 at 2:21
  • @Pushpak Would the email go to the askers, or other users? There is a newsletter that you can sign up for that lists hot questions, but generally the Stack Exchange policy is "don't email anyone unless it's absolutely necessary." Accepting an answer is great, but it's not fundamental to our goal of collecting the answers themselves. As for a chat session, I'd be down for that, but I don't think we currently have the user-base required to sustain that kind of thing--it's kind of a chicken-egg problem. – Matthew Haugen Apr 10 '15 at 2:24
  • mail can go to user who asked question, generally people never come back, because they forget. mail will remind with link when answer or comment arrives on question, as our site is a bit late answer type people loose interest after 1-2 hour. – Pushpak Apr 10 '15 at 2:29
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    @Pushpak I am actually with you on all this. Kind of. I used to be, I'm not sure how I feel now. There's another feature request (linked in a comment on my post, there) requesting this, but it hasn't gotten official attention. – Matthew Haugen Apr 10 '15 at 18:57
  • just started bounty over it. please feel free to edit question to best possible solution. i believe A data query comparing unregistered user will help in making good question – Pushpak Apr 13 '15 at 8:57
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    @Pushpak I wish I had a viable solution. It's really just a tough trade-off, and realistically it's one that has a very small effect on sites other than Ask Patents. Because of the "discuss this..." button on Google, we get a lot more random visitors than many other sites. That coupled with the present lack of a strong community here highlights the problem. I know Stack Exchange is willing to do a lot to help even individual sites, but much of this would probably be too big a change to warrant simply on our behalf. – Matthew Haugen Apr 13 '15 at 9:15
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    Not that it's not worth thinking about, it is, but we have to think about how we can fit a solution in with the greater, network-wide environment. If that makes any sense. – Matthew Haugen Apr 13 '15 at 9:15
  • I tried to find the post, I don't know if it would be on MSE or MSO, but there's a feature-request somewhere out there asking for UserType to be added to SEDE. I don't believe it has been completed yet, so that would be a query requiring an employee. If you wanted to post a question, either here or on MSE, a CM might be feeling generous enough to help. – Matthew Haugen Apr 13 '15 at 9:17
  • meta.stackexchange.com/q/240516/263510 waiting for some answers on your question. if nothing comes will pursue CM. – Pushpak Apr 13 '15 at 9:22

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