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Recently, while browsing questions and answers, I came across some excellent posts by users I had previously interacted with. Some of these users I remembered well because they were helpful, while others I had communicated with multiple times. However, as I checked their profiles, I noticed many had not used SE for a long time (some for up to 9 years), and others had deleted their accounts. Although I have never met these users in real life, I still feel they contributed valuable perspectives to the community. It was both sad and nostalgic to see them no longer active on SE.

This inspired me to suggest a new feature. It would send periodic emails (perhaps monthly) to users with deleted or inactive accounts, inviting them to return. Users could opt out if they prefer not to receive these messages. I was inspired by Duolingo, which has a similar feature, sending reminder emails to re-engage inactive users. I believe implementing this could help bring back experienced or helpful members, enriching the community's diversity and enhancing the overall quality of Q&A on the site.

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    What percentage of Duolingo users respond to these emails and a) welcome them b) come back and contribute? Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 15:46
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    There is a very unfriendly reply I have to such pestering. This is how you let people know to stay away, not to come back. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 15:47
  • @MisterMiyagi This is why I mentioned including an option to unsubscribe to such emails. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 15:50
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    @Anushka_Grace People shouldn’t be subscribed to this in the first place. Even one such uninvited email is enough. "We are just writing you uninvited about XYZ, but you can totally unsubscribe if you want" – that’s grade A spam. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 15:52
  • @RobertLongson A lot, in fact. However, I do understand that SE users are much different from Duolingo users, so I actually have a new proposal. This proposal could function like a "card", where users can "vote" on it, and if the votes are positive, the "card" could be sent to the inactive user. It would show them that numerous users truly want them to return to the community. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 15:52
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    Somewhat related is Force Accepted Answers on Questions by Inactive Users where the answer suggested the concept of _ accept-answer votes_. I say somewhat related since an example of votes on posts for inactive users, albeit without sending uninvited emails. That question is tagged status-declined. If the feature in this question is implemented, for privacy reasons it should be explicitly opted into. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 16:00
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    I would note that sending an email to a user with a deleted account would raise some eyebrows, specially for countries where privacy laws are enforced. A GDPR fine would put the company in the red. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 16:49
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    @Anushka_Grace Please don't take the downvotes personally: that's just how we say "I disagree with this feature request" on meta sites. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 19:42
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    I'm also nostalgic about the community how it was many years ago, but I don't think that spam emails are the way. Duolingo is an extremely bad example nobody should copy. I don't know what possibly could bring anyone back. Maybe if SE would go in a certain direction, whatever that would be, probably not exactly the current one. But it's not certain anyway. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 21:37
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    @NoDataDumpNoContribution Thanks, I really appreciate the feedback! Also, you are right, Duolingo is a bad inspiration. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 21:49
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    @NoDataDumpNoContribution you mean SE shouldn't get a duck mascot that passive aggressively threatens you if you break a streak? Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 0:22
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    Please don't add a "new proposal" to an existing proposal that has already received feedback and answers. Instead, please make a new post for it. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 0:24
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    Duolingo is a language learning app, and "persistence is key," so the reminders make sense. However, even people with great contributions have probably been inactive for a reason, which may include them not needing the site anymore. Note: I'm just laying facts, not trying to make a point. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 5:50
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    The users here participates on their own accord. No one force anyone to do things here (unless you are a moderator, which I guess it becomes a job, although a voluntary one). People are free to leave the community at any time. So, no one should force anyone to join or send any reminders. The internet points (reputation) doesn't mean anything. The comparison of SE with Doulingo should not be done as Duolingo is pretty much a rewarding system. The more you participate, the more you are rewarded. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 7:05
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    @NilayGhosh With what are you rewarded on Duolingo? With knowledge maybe? I think it's not the worst idea to compare both. Maybe Duolingo will soon get into teaching programming, who knows. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 9:20

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Look, you seem to like it here. You are one of the rare people who actually joined and started participating properly when most people are going the opposite direction. You haven’t been here for all the fighting between the community and company, or between that part and this part of the community, or those people and the community, or …

Which puts you in the situation of frankly not understanding why people left. So it’s hard to understand that they wouldn’t just want to come back if you asked nicely.

But what situation it also puts you in is being able to look at SE as it is right now. Look at it without all the cruft and bad blood and history. See it differently than us crusty old folks.

But if someone asked me if SE's a place they should return to - I'd struggle to say yes.
Journeyman Geek

So instead of worrying about the "how", please think about the "why". Think about what makes this worth a place to be.
Think about what makes this worth a place to be when there are so many other places one could be.

Then reach out. Not via unsolicited mails like a spammer. Perhaps start reaching out to the people that still cling to this place. When the umpteenth "SE is toxic" post comes along, counter with what makes this place good. When the dozenth "rats are leaving the ship" post comes along, counter with what makes this place worth staying.
Perhaps then expand. As someone who has become a crusty old folks here, I find it truly sad how all one hears from Quora, and Reddit, and Hacker News is that this place stinks. Perhaps, just perhaps, we need more people there saying why they feel this place is actually pretty great.

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    Funny thing is stuff like that gives me a little hope. That new folks want to fight the save the place . I might disagree with the question - but the sentiment and attitude given the right conditions is our best chance of recovering the community ;) Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 8:33
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    @JourneymanGeek "That new folks want to fight the save the place." That's why we give them 17 downvotes for it. Sure the feature request isn't going to work, but it gives us hope. If only there was a way to better express that. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 11:48
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    Well folks voted on the premise of the question - I chose to answer instead because I see this as an opportunity to share and express constructively why the original question was flawed. There's lots of great ways to express things. Its just the level of effort one wants to/is able to put into it.. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 11:52
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    @JourneymanGeek I was just commenting on the disparity of the voting (this is a bad feature request) and what you wrote (it gave you a little hope). I wonder if Anushka Grace understood it correctly. I guess not and I wish there was a better way but I don't think there will be here. People are nevertheless very settled in their ways and not going to change much. It's a competition out there for knowledge generation and distribution. As I said I'm mostly concerned with psychological impacts. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 13:01
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    @NoDataDumpNoContribution I understand the downvotes. Upon reflection, my proposal was terrible. Don't worry, I'm just happy that I got helpful responses on why the issue persists and why SE is the way it is today. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 16:09
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    @Anushka_Grace A few more proposals that, upon reflection, you realise are terrible, and you might just save the network. We need radical ideas, but more than that, we need the people who come up with well-considered radical ideas. So do please continue sharing any such ideas you have, either on main, or in the Tavern. (And if you get question-banned for it, I'll petition the devs for a change in the question-ban algorithm.) Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 19:56
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    @wizzwizz4 Thanks! I'll make sure to continue sharing any ideas that I have. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 20:02
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    As a (relatively) new user, I can agree that I do have hope for this place - could be because I haven't experienced the bad things, but I've seen good things come out of here. Commented Oct 6, 2025 at 5:19
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    @Anushka_Grace That's great to hear. Then my worries are put to ease. I still think the workflow isn't optimal and being glad that there are new people with new ideas on the one hand and marking bad feature requests as bad (this request here cost you rep effectively) on the other hand may not convey the exact message we want to convey and I wish there was a bit more. I fear that too many people will not come back and continue with their ideas even though they should. Good to know that this isn't the case here. Commented Oct 6, 2025 at 7:35
  • Another user has left the community now. :( Hopefully you return soon, your answer was great. Commented Nov 27, 2025 at 2:32
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As a roughly 16 year user of the network - quite a lot of our 'former' users have their reasons. Critically in many cases this is due to disagreements with the direction or decisions the network has made, and in many cases, these issues are unresolved or even ongoing.

Other might have found they've outgrown or have found solace in chatgpt's sweet vacuous embrace

I don't think emailing these users is much use without reflection and resolution. It might be counterproductive, and honestly you underestimate the level of complexity and baggage involved.

If nothing else - it's unsolicited promotional email, aka Spam. In some cases it could be a painful reminder of past events.

It would do us good to have the old crew back together, but the process of doing so is a lot more complicated than just emailing them. In many cases we know where folks are - and to an extent, they keep track of goings on here. The trick is rebuilding goodwill with those folks and being a place they want to be.

I'm still here - and hopefully fighting the good fight. But if someone asked me if SE's a place they should return to - I'd struggle to say yes. We do need to reach out to the lost parts of the community, but it's a bigger, longer process than just emailing them.

Right now SE's focused on new user growth. We do need that but we also need to rebuild bridges between the company, and those who stayed, so we can reach out - not via a impartial email but "hey, so... they actually did a smart thing!" and get people to check it out.

It would be a big project - we've been in various crisis for close to a decade. We lost MANY of the people who would have the charisma, drive and knowledge to fix these things.

(Also, sometimes SE's marketing folks, who would be sending the emails get the tone of things very wrong, but that's another story).

The heart of the idea is good, but you seriously underestimate what it'd take, even if it was possible.

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When these users have left, it's often due to some issue(s) with Stack Exchange, either with Stack Exchange Inc. itself or due to conflicts with moderators or other users. Instead of spamming people who left because of these problems, one should focus on addressing the underlying issues. This recent meta post from a formerly very active user (ranked #1 on Super User) who stopped posting on the main site because of some of these issues offers some good insights: The Rise and Fall of Stack Overflow Part 2 – Conserving Users. As a result, the Stack Exchange/Overflow brand is associated by many people with a toxic environment. There are tens of thousands of posts on Reddit (clickable posts), Quora (clickable posts), Hacker News (clickable posts) and other platforms discussing this. It is very challenging to convince people to come back to an environment they deemed negative/toxic.

Of course, there’s also the recent progress in AI, which allows people to get answers to many of their questions faster and without the aforementioned problems, to the point that even SE Inc. is trying to add AI to their site. I believe the recent progress in AI has played a major role in why the number of questions on SE has decreased 10-fold. It's rather pointless to spend time on something that can be automated. That's why SE is panicking and ended up stopping distributing the data dump, trying to milk AI companies and creating fake accounts. SE trying to adapt to this new AI challenge is creating further tension between the community and the mods/SE Inc.

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    Thanks so much for your answer! It is really helpful. Also, on a side note, I would like to say how disheartening it is to find out that AI is causing SE 's communities to collapse or become smaller. Although, admittedly, AI provides good answers, something that only SE can offer is being diminished. Some of my fav parts of being part of SE is connecting with other users who have a platform to share their expert opinions and the process of waiting for a great answer written by a professional in the field. ;( Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 21:54
  • @Anushka_Grace Connecting with other SE users is my least favorite part. I'm only here for knowledge. And since many users have left after disagreement with other members (typically mods or SE Inc as they can cause much more trouble than regular user), I'm sure many people think the same way. For them, AI is a blessing. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 21:57
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    I too have disagreements with mods or other users sometimes. However, I never voice them out but instead use the site's methods to address this, such as flagging or posting about how to deal with the situation here on Meta. Despite all of this, though, there are still helpful users, and some can only offer opinions and answers that an experienced professional can provide, not AI. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 22:01
  • @Anushka_Grace "there are still helpful users, and some can only offer opinions and answers that an experienced professional can provide, not AI." Agreed, but that use case is shrinking fast to the point that even SE Inc. is trying to add AI to their site. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 22:06
  • Noted. That's a valid point. I guess AI and the shrinking of the SE community is unavoidable. Commented Oct 4, 2025 at 22:11
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    I'd disagree - there's plenty of AI skeptical people out there, and the 'brain drain' started even earlier. There's lots of instances where decisions by the company lead to this, and I don't believe its unfixable. It just needs time, and work to rebuild goodwill with the communities we have, had and could. Sometimes focusing too much on people who don't want to be be here, and would rather complain is a bad idea. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 4:29
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    @JourneymanGeek I agree that the drain started earlier but I'm quite confident that AI reinforced it, simply due to the fact that many SE users themselves stated that they increasingly use AI. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 5:41
  • @JourneymanGeek Upon reflection, I agree. Commented Oct 5, 2025 at 16:12
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    creating fake accounts That seems extremely misleading. They're not making fake socks, it's just a bug that happens sometimes when leaving a site. Commented Oct 7, 2025 at 20:33
  • @Otakuwu It’s not a bug. They know about this for ages, and it’s hard to think of a reason why it’s that way other than by choice. The signup process was deliberately automated, and the extend of it definitely points at TPtB deliberately faking user numbers. Commented Oct 8, 2025 at 3:51

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