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I wrote the following query on data.stackexchange.com. It returned some astonishing results.

https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/query/1273685/stackoverflow-average-votes-vs-viewed-count

Observations

  1. Newer questions are getting fewer and fewer visits.
  2. Average votes per questions are decreasing.
  3. Fewer answers are getting posted. Highest number of answers between 2013 to 2017.

My best guesses

  1. Most people are asking generic questions which have already been answered before. Hence newer questions are less likely to turn up in results.
  2. People are more likely to upvote an answer that already has higher number of upvotes.
  3. People are frugal while casting their votes for new answers.

Dangers

  1. This is creating an unfavourable environment for such an important platform. Since newer posts are not getting enough visits/votes, new programmers are not getting enough encouragement to write good answers.
  2. Many old veterans are writing fewer posts. There are exceptions, especially a Good Samaritan like Jon Skeet. But even his daily reputation points gain has halved.
  3. Newer technologies are less likely to have patrons who passionately and selflessly write answers.

What steps should be taken to encourage young programmers to be more forthcoming in helping other?

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