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I was just looking at this question on Area51. It has eleven great on topic votes, and no other votes. The site still says they need ten questions of all sorts? What's the new goal?

I'm worried about how much consensus you expect in a site before it can go to commit. Even at just ten votes, you would still need twenty people who agreed exactly about the set of on and off topic questions to get a site into the commit phase.

Math (Original 10 votes):

  • 10 Questions
  • 10 votes for question (assumed)
  • 5 votes per follower
  • 100 votes / 5 votes
  • 20 users

Current Math (With above actual 30 vote limit):

  • 10 Questions
  • 30 votes for question (current actual)
  • 5 votes per follower
  • 300 votes / 5 votes
  • 60 users

This inclines me to wonder if the limit is actually 30 (which would require 60 users to be in agreement).

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closed as off-topic by РСТȢѸФХѾЦЧШЩЪЫЬѢѤЮѦѪѨѬѠѺѮѰѲѴ, Martijn Pieters, hims056, Hugo Dozois, ChrisF Jan 31 at 20:18

This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:

  • "The problem described here can no longer be reproduced. Changes to the system or to the circumstances affecting the asker have rendered it obsolete. If you encounter a similar problem, please post a new question." – РСТȢѸФХѾЦЧШЩЪЫЬѢѤЮѦѪѨѬѠѺѮѰѲѴ, Martijn Pieters, hims056, Hugo Dozois, ChrisF
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

    
10 + 10 is not 20 people, they can (and will) overlap. And they don't have to agree exactly. At least 60 followers are required anyway, and it's likely there will be more. I hate to say it... but maybe we should restrict example questions even further: 3 per person and force the old questions to be winnowed down to the limit. –  Gnome Jun 5 '10 at 20:43
    
@The Cat: Persian IT has already met its quota for followers. It also appears to have unambiguously on-topic answers, but the "good example" and "bad example" counts have not moved. Perhaps The Team has moved those counts out of the "definition" phase. –  Robert Harvey Jun 5 '10 at 20:57
    
@Robert: I think it more likely the thresholds are being evaluated in light of the voting limits. I believe they should be focusing on controversial questions instead of the clear-cut cases anyway, but that's already on Meta elsewhere. –  Gnome Jun 5 '10 at 21:24
1  
Is the on/off-topic vote count even working yet? I looked at several of the top sites, and they all show "10 on/off-topic questions needed". –  John C Jun 5 '10 at 23:00
    
@John It could be that it's just not working, but I assumed the limit hadn't been reached yet. –  C. Ross Jun 6 '10 at 1:08
    
It's greater than 16 at least. If I had to guess, it's probably 25. –  Kyle Cronin Jun 6 '10 at 4:29
    
@Kyle, thanks, I wondered. Is there any official listing of the requirements? Not sure why that information should be hidden. –  John C Jun 6 '10 at 14:23
    
@John: I doubt it's intentional. The site is in beta and things are changing quickly. –  Gnome Jun 6 '10 at 16:11
    
Ok, In Persian IT we have a question with 18 off-topic vote and another question with 14 on-topic vote still no change on required on-topic/off-topic numbers. –  Hameds Jun 6 '10 at 18:19
1  
In GIS we've reached 25 off-topic votes, still no change. Sorry Kyle –  fmark Jun 7 '10 at 12:03
    
@fmark it was just a guess, but I wasn't far off - the cutoff is 30 –  Kyle Cronin Jun 7 '10 at 15:49
1  
can a mod tag this FAQ at least? Otherwise, put it in the area51 faq page. –  Gordon Gustafson Jun 13 '10 at 23:13

5 Answers 5

up vote 16 down vote accepted

A question is considered on- or off-topic when it reaches 20 votes

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2  
Thanks Kyle, that's great work! You forgot the freehand circles though. –  C. Ross Jun 7 '10 at 17:08
1  
wow! If you have 60 members then you have 60*5=300 on-topic votes, so for 10 on-topic you will need 10*30=300 votes. –  Hameds Jun 7 '10 at 17:32
    
@Hameds see my answer: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/52662/… –  David Fullerton Jun 7 '10 at 22:22

We bumped it way up to 30, not because we actually think that's the right number but because we want to see how many votes questions are getting and then drop it down to the right number. It's easier to lower it than to raise it without upsetting people.

Update

The final number (for now) is 20 votes.

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Thanks David Fullerton. –  C. Ross Jun 7 '10 at 17:28
2  
I don't know why, but it makes me laugh when someone refers to someone by his fullname in casual conversation –  jmfsg Jun 7 '10 at 18:43
4  
@Jaun I thought it looked better than Thanks David (Fifteen Characters) –  C. Ross Jun 8 '10 at 12:40
    
@Eric I just knew the old trick of <! -- 15 Characters --> DIdn't work anymore. –  C. Ross Jun 11 '10 at 13:40
1  
@David Any idea when the limit is coming down. –  C. Ross Jun 14 '10 at 14:20
    
What's the updated count? –  ripper234 Feb 5 '11 at 7:36
2  
@ripper234 20 votes...updated my answer –  David Fullerton Feb 5 '11 at 15:35

Math based on actual currently

  • 10 Questions
  • 30 votes for question (current actual)
  • 5 votes per follower
  • 300 votes / 5 votes
  • 60 users

That is way too many, it should be more like 15.

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notice that the required number of followers is also 60, so the math evens out when you have a close knitted community (and the numbers have been lowered ;) ) –  alexanderpas Jun 16 '10 at 16:22

Perhaps it's a bug, if not, I think the restrictions are too high, limiting votes and upping the threshold, very difficult to reach 10 on topic and 10 off topic questions in my opinion.

No site has reached 1 in either category yet.

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1  
Fewer questions could really help this. –  Gnome Jun 6 '10 at 16:09
1  
@The Cat I agree fewer questions would be better, but now we're looking at a question with 21 votes and it doesn't count? I think the question at hand is still relevant. –  C. Ross Jun 7 '10 at 11:56

Current threshold seems to be 20 votes.

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