TL;DR
The % answered
shown in Area51 statistics does not match the real value for answered questions.
Related questions
- What exactly does “% answered” mean?
The accepted answer does not seem to match (discussed below). - Does closing questions count against the “percent answered” & “answer ratio” statistics?
Unanswered. - Do the “Questions Per Day” metric for Beta Sites Exclude Closed questions?
Taken to also consider closed questions in calculations.
Context
We are evaluating different strategies on Stack Overflow en español regarding close reasons, comments before closing, quality vs. quantity and new users captation.
We are relying on a data-informed approach. However, our statistics don't match. I understand that these metrics serve only as a broad guideline to the site health, but I reckon we should get our numbers straight.
Trying to infer how Area51 considers a question as answered
Given there is no official documentation on how % answered
is being calculated, and the fact that we have tested hundreds of SEDE queries over the last month, I tried to infer it considering:
- Regular and closed questions.
- Total answers and answers with a positive overall score.
- Filtering out questions asked 1 and even 2 weeks ago.
- Questions with more than 1 answer.
- SEDE update time (all comparisons were made against the value shown around this time over the last 4 updates).
- Minor differences that could be the result of different update schedules.
Results
The following SEDE query shows some of the statistics we used: http://data.stackexchange.com/es/query/530265/percentage-answered.
And these screenshots were taken from Area51 statistics for Stack Overflow en español around last SEDE update time:
Comparison with 2 other sites:
I am including Hardware Recommendations and Monero statistics for reference (both in public beta as well).
%Answered \ Site SOes HR monero
---------------------------------------- -------- -------- --------
Total 83.36% 67.48% 97.23%
Accepted OR Answer Score > 0 70.09% 63.43% 96.68%
Total (except closed) 84.48% 68.08% 98.55%
Accepted OR Answer > 0 (except closed) 70.94% 63.95% 97.97%
---------------------------------------- -------- -------- --------
Area51 72% 68% 99%
Source: SEDE (SOes, hardwarerecs, monero), Area51 (SOes, hardwarerecs, monero)
As you can see, the value shown by Area51 does not match any of the queries we have tried. And these differences would seem to be larger than what could be interpreted from different update schedules (SEDE vs. Area51).
Question
Can you explain how % Answered
is being calculated and check if there is something wrong in the value shown in Area51 statistics?