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If my calculations are rights I believe that in the main site Mathematics Stack Exchange there are at least 200000 users whose reputation is 1. My belief about this situation (I haven't stats) is that the most of these users are persons that in the past have been created an account and after they have little activity.

I believe that the issue (by the nature of the problem, say us the willingness or motivation of these users) isn't of the site Mathematics Stack Exchange, but I would like to know if it is possible to promote some solution, and what.

Question. I believe that that there are a huge number of users with little activity, or none, in the site Mathematics Stack Exchange. Is it possible any constructive solution to encourage (the return to the site of) these users? What? Many thanks.

As motivation I am saying that I believe that it is a real problem, a great number of persons that have been created an account because they were motivated to learn and share mathematics, but that today they seem disconnected to the site.

The solution that I propose, if as community it is possible to promote some solution and put this (the solution that I evoke) one to work, is to
send an email as reminder that they are welcome to the site or maybe a special Newsletter containig special and selected math content from the site MSE.

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  • $\begingroup$ Feel free to comment if my idea of posting this META is bad. I think that it is real problem. Maybe we can not fix it, but at least you can comment your ideas. $\endgroup$ – user243301 Aug 13 '18 at 20:29
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    $\begingroup$ I think your "belief about this situation" is somewhat off the mark. In fact, a significant number of users come here in hopes of getting their homework done for them, and to do so must register as a user of the site; not all users coming here "have been created an account because they were motivated to learn and share mathematics." $\endgroup$ – amWhy Aug 13 '18 at 20:37
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    $\begingroup$ Why is this a problem? If a student finishes their math courses and has no further interest in the subject (or need to ask questions about it, at least), then there is no reason for them to continue coming to the site. And to echo at least one other opinion, such a newsletter is likely to be annoying at a minimum. $\endgroup$ – user296602 Aug 13 '18 at 20:37
  • $\begingroup$ @amWhy truly I think that we haven't stats to think that a significant number of users come here in hopes of getting their homework. I am saying to you that I believe that there are at least 200000 users with reputation of 1. Many thanks. $\endgroup$ – user243301 Aug 13 '18 at 20:41
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    $\begingroup$ Many thanks @T.Bongers again I believe that we have no stats to analyze what is the problem here, why are there a great number of users with little activity? How many there are? Is there more than in other sites Stack Exchange? $\endgroup$ – user243301 Aug 13 '18 at 20:43
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    $\begingroup$ What about users with reputation of 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 89, 137, 1431, 29973 ... etc, that may have left the site? $\endgroup$ – amWhy Aug 13 '18 at 20:43
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    $\begingroup$ Taking it as a fact that there are a couple hundred thousand users with 1 reputation point... why is this a problem at all? People use the site for some time while it's of utility to them, and then they move on with their lives. $\endgroup$ – user296602 Aug 13 '18 at 20:44
  • $\begingroup$ If I'm right the site Coffee Stack Exchange has 5,481 users and today had 2200 visitors. I have no any problem about what do the people, but I believe that the site MSE should analyze its statistics to know if is there some problem and how solve it @T.Bongers The link to the mentioned site $\endgroup$ – user243301 Aug 13 '18 at 20:48
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    $\begingroup$ @user243301 Then you might want to ask the question "Should we analyze statistics in order to know if there is a problem in having 200000 dormant accounts? And actually, how can we know whether or not to count an account as abandoned?" Rather than assuming there is a problem, and proposing a solution to what has yet to be identified as a problem. $\endgroup$ – amWhy Aug 13 '18 at 20:51
  • $\begingroup$ @user243301 You can look up the traffic statistics and the number of users, and it's true that about 2/3 of all MSE users have only 1 reputation point (and can therefore likely be assumed to be idle). I don't think this is a problem at all; if you're changing the question to "how can we analyze the statistics to see if there is a problem" then that's completely different.... $\endgroup$ – user296602 Aug 13 '18 at 20:51
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    $\begingroup$ I welcome your enthusiasm for this site. But I'm afraid you are supposing that "account with rep 1" = "someone who has the same enthusiasm for math, but has since left MSE and need only a welcoming email to see the error of their ways, in order to have them all come back". That's a supposition, an assumption, you are making, with no justification for jumping to that conclusion. $\endgroup$ – amWhy Aug 13 '18 at 20:57
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    $\begingroup$ @user243301 You said that "... is because we honestly consider that there is a problem." Can you clarify 1) why you think this is a problem and 2) who exactly the "we" is? $\endgroup$ – user296602 Aug 13 '18 at 21:41
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    $\begingroup$ I'm afraid that it looks like you're purposefully ignoring both @amWhy's and my own comments. If you could simply explain why you think this is a problem that even needs a solution, then perhaps you'd be getting a more positive response to this post. After a dozen comments it seems you haven't really tried to articulate it. $\endgroup$ – user296602 Aug 13 '18 at 22:55
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    $\begingroup$ @user243301 See, when you keep talking about a "solution," there needs to be an underlying problem. I claim that there is no problem; this is a natural state of affairs that we don't need to fix (hence my downvote of this question). I think amWhy likely feels the same based on their comments. You haven't articulated why you think there's a problem that needs to be fixed - you just keep proposing a solution. In short: why does it matter that there are many users with no activity? What harm does it cause? $\endgroup$ – user296602 Aug 14 '18 at 0:11
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    $\begingroup$ By the way, in case you're not aware, there is a convention on Meta that upvotes and downvotes do not necessarily indicate that your post is good or bad, but are more often used to indicate agreement or disagreement. If a post is bad for Meta, the community would vote to close/delete it, which has not happened for your question. $\endgroup$ – user21820 Aug 15 '18 at 5:15
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I challenge your assertion that "a great number of persons that have been created an account because they were motivated to learn and share mathematics".

My guess is that a large majority of the people who create accounts on MSE do so in order to get a couple of homework questions answered right before a deadline. They don't care about maintaining a presence on MSE, and they have no interest in the community here. I see no reason to spam their inboxes in an attempt to get them to "come back".

Basically, I don't see a problem with the existence of 200,000 inactive accounts.

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  • $\begingroup$ Many thanks also for your attention and answer. I haven't statistics to know (what percentage) if they were asking at least one or two questions. $\endgroup$ – user243301 Aug 13 '18 at 20:38
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    $\begingroup$ Not to mention that, if indeed there are 200,000 "inactive users", there are folks who recreate a new account *every single time they ask a question. We can't know how well "the number of accounts with only one rep point" represents inactive users. $\endgroup$ – amWhy Aug 13 '18 at 20:41
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    $\begingroup$ This is not even necessarily limited to MSE. I guess most users on most SE sites just needed some question answered once, and then completely forgot about it. I've tried comparing the ratio "users with 200 rep or more"/"all users" for a few sites through the reputation leagues; it's rarely above 5%, especially for "technical" sites such as StackOverflow, SuperUser, Unix, AskUbuntu, ServerFault, Software Engineering or the science sites. $\endgroup$ – Arnaud D. Aug 14 '18 at 10:19
  • $\begingroup$ @ArnaudD. I think that mathematics is a very important subject in the education of young people, and I know that it is very difficult learn mathematics. Students need a lot of attention to learn math, much more than a solved question. If I understand well the sites that you've mentioned are for professionals. And I add that technologies today are and tomorrow these change, but a failure or demotivation in mathematics is perhaps substantial in a life. $\endgroup$ – user243301 Aug 14 '18 at 19:12
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I cannot express in words how much I love getting "we miss you, please come back" emails from various websites I once registered at. I can only express it by voting on this proposal.

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  • $\begingroup$ Well I've upvoted your answer, thanks for your feedback. If you want to add more ideas I am going to read those. And maybe my proposal is bad, I wanted to say that to me there is a problem/failed (is just my opinion about the concern). $\endgroup$ – user243301 Aug 13 '18 at 20:31
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    $\begingroup$ Poe's law. Seriously. $\endgroup$ – user21820 Aug 14 '18 at 6:39
  • $\begingroup$ @user21820 I don't understand your comment/feedback (I'm writting this response friendly and my English isn't the best). I wanted to add my previous comment and upvote to the user answering my post as a thanks feedback. Seems that for this user my proposal of mailing isn't a good proposal, but I wanted at least to propose a solution for the problem that I've explained. $\endgroup$ – user243301 Aug 14 '18 at 15:06
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    $\begingroup$ @user243301: My comment is because I estimate about 90% likelihood that user357151 is being absolutely sarcastic, and hence actually saying: "I cannot express how much I hate getting annoying emails from websites I no longer visit. I have downvoted your proposal to express myself."... $\endgroup$ – user21820 Aug 14 '18 at 15:24
  • $\begingroup$ Many thanks for clarify it, and good week @user21820 $\endgroup$ – user243301 Aug 14 '18 at 19:08

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