Beta Dashboard for Metrics: Private vs Public Beta

Question

The Area51 Dashboard for proposals in the Beta phase show updated metrics and average benchmark suggestions for proposals that are strong vs proposals that need help:

There has been updated guidance on how to support a successful Private Beta (see here), and we are given 3-4 weeks in Private Beta before a decision is made on whether or not the site will move onto the Public Beta stage. Everything starts anew with this Private Beta site (including reputation points), so it inevitably takes time to create a snowball with sufficient mass to keep moving. I am trying to evaluate if our site is healthy or not, but I haven't been able to find guidance on the following question:

For the metrics provided on the Area51 proposal page (see image above), are these suggested benchmarks for success applicable to the Private or the Public Beta stage? Specifically, is a site expected to reach >500 visits per day and have those number of Avid Users?

Answer 1

The benchmarks for success were applicable to sites in Public Beta about a decade ago, back when the expectation was that every site would be as wildly successful as StackOverflow. These days, once a site reaches Public Beta, the only requirement is that it have a sufficient community to answer questions and keep the site cleaned up.

During Private Beta, the site is evaluated to see if it's likely that the required community is busy forming. There are no hard metric here, but rather, a general evaluation of trends.