Staging Ground is Live: Improving the Quality of New User Questions on Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow's Staging Ground, a feature designed to help new users craft high-quality questions, is now live. This initiative aims to improve the overall experience for both reviewers and authors by providing a safe sandbox environment for new askers.

A Recap of the Staging Ground Initiative

The goal of Staging Ground is to improve the quality of questions asked by new users, increase the percentage of successful questions, and enhance engagement and knowledge transfer between new askers and reviewers. It aims to overcome the learning curve of using Stack Overflow effectively by providing a space for askers to receive constructive feedback and refine their questions.

• Improve the quality of questions asked by new users.
• Increase the percentage of successful questions asked by new users.
• Improve the engagement and knowledge transfer between new askers and reviewers.

Changes for the Full Release of Staging Ground

This update includes several improvements and new features based on community feedback, including:

• Simplified Ask Wizard onboarding process.
• Updated "post" button text for minor edits.
• Introduction of new badges to reward reviewer activity.
• Notifications, mod tooling, abuse prevention measures, and miscellaneous bug fixes.

Upcoming and Planned Changes

Future updates for Staging Ground include:

• Expanding the number of users eligible to participate.
• Adding more question templates to the Ask Wizard.
• Improving the feedback mechanism for reviewers.
• Developing new features based on user feedback and data analysis.

How to Participate in Staging Ground

Both new users (askers) and experienced users (reviewers) can participate in Staging Ground.

As a Question-Asker

First-time askers create their questions using the Ask Wizard. Their post automatically enters Staging Ground for feedback and guidance from experienced users before being publicly posted. Askers receive both inbox and email notifications as they receive feedback.

As a Question-Reviewer

Users with 500 reputation points can access review queues, including Staging Ground. Reviewers help improve the quality of new questions by providing constructive feedback and guidance to new askers. To get started reviewing questions, click on the "Staging Ground" icon on the left sidebar navigation or through the provided link. More information on how to use Staging Ground is available in the Help Center article.

Staging Ground’s Scaling Problem

One challenge for Staging Ground is scaling the review process to accommodate the large number of new questions on Stack Overflow. The time commitment required for reviewing questions in Staging Ground is greater than for other curation activities. To address this challenge, the team is focusing on:

• Making the review process easier and smoother for reviewers.
• Exploring strategies to incentivize reviewer participation, lower reviewer cycle time, and provide progression paths for successful askers.
• Monitoring the pace of new questions relative to active reviewers to ensure a healthy balance.

Next Steps and How You Can Help

The team is conducting research to understand what constitutes a "good" quality question. This research will help inform future improvements to Staging Ground.

• Research questions:
• Why are certain questions considered good and well-written?
• What are the characteristics/components of a question?
• What criteria should be used to evaluate whether a draft is likely to be successful?
• What do reviewers prioritize when evaluating new questions?
• How do reviewers decide which questions need improvement?
• Data analysis: The team is analyzing data from the previous Staging Ground beta testing, including the engagement with comment templates, questions that were successfully transitioned to the main site, and qualitative and quantitative data gathered through research studies.
• Research participation: Community members interested in participating in future research studies should enable the research invitation option in their profile settings.

Thank You for Your Participation

The team encourages all community members to explore the new Staging Ground feature and participate in making it a valuable resource for new users. Your contributions will help ensure that Stack Overflow remains a high-quality and dependable resource for anyone with software questions.