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Recently, I asked Suggestions for Winter Bash 2020, which is a recurring yearly question asking for suggestions about the next year's Winter Bash (or other winter celebration). It is a recurring question of the following series:

All of these questions essentially asked the same thing: what should be done for the next year's Winter Bash. All of them were received quite positively.

However, my question about the 2020 Winter Bash was downvoted off the home page quite quickly, and has continued to be received negatively, in direct contrast to its previous counterparts asking for the very same things.

What was it about my question that made its reception overwhelmingly negative? I've received comments that there may not be hats next year, and someone suggested in a deleted answer that I should edit the post to consider ideas for future different winter celebrations instead of hats. I've done so, but the reception hasn't improved at all.

Also, what can I do to improve the question and make it more likely to be positively received?

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    Marking this of a dupe of your original question. Please lookout the post dates of all of the past “Winter Bash” threads you are posting. Note how they were posted a few days after the New Years. As it stands, right now it’s not even 1/2 a day into the New Years in many places. So honestly, what is the rush? Maybe you should just let it stand or perhaps delete it until a few days from now? – JakeGould Jan 1 at 7:15
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    The comments there are the place to discuss this, opening a new question for an open question is unusual; and it's not really all that negatively received - were it to reverse (ironically) it would be hat-worthy. – Rob Jan 1 at 7:38
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    Sorry but questions like "Why was my question downvoted" are off topic, since we can't know the answer. Nobody can. And since you are well aware of that already, I'm not sure why you posted this question? – Shadow The Burning Wizard Jan 1 at 8:18
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    Isn't it obvious? Winter bash discussions have gone out of fashion. – Trilarion Jan 1 at 19:02
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One reason might be that there's a very good chance there will be no Winter Bash 2020.

A staff member has stated:

Chances are good we won't be doing hats next year, but finding something brand new to do. We wanted to do that this year, but wouldn't have been able to pull it off. Hats have just gotten too overdone and repetitive. – animuson♦ Dec 11 '19 at 19:21

Given that, it's not that unreasonable to expect that a post asking for suggestions about an event we've already been told will likely not be happening will be... poorly received.

In addition to that, given the atmosphere and environment of the network and especially Meta.SE at the moment, people aren't exactly in a mood to discuss fun things. That leads to downvotes on stuff that people think is insensitive or should not be happening given recent events.

And I'm afraid Tim misplaced his keys again.

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  • Also, past threads on the winter bash happened a few days after the New Year actually started, not within a few hours of New Years arriving. – JakeGould Jan 1 at 7:32
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    In a word... Timing – Journeyman Geek♦ Jan 1 at 7:44

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