Forum:Why Was My Question Deleted?

Question

[Paulo Nuin]

So, I asked the question, which was related to the section in bold below (from the FAQ):

This site's focus is bioinformatics, computational genomics and biological data analysis. Only posts on these topics or those pertaining to Biostar itself are allowed.

What's wrong with the question I asked? Wasn't it related to Biostar itself? Isn't it some kind of dictatorship decision? I guess that's why we have so few people participating and answering questions. There's no engagement of the community, nothing. Good thing I left this place years ago, bad thing I decided to come back.

[Istvan Albert]

I always feel sorry when someone gets upset with this or other parts of the website. We are trying hard to make the experience as positive as possible. Even then some may find that the site does not operate the way they wish it did - I grew the accept that as the way the human spirit works.

Sometimes the people that are unhappy and restless go on and create a better experience. That's why Biostar exists in the first place and thats why systems better than it will be created in the future.

Answer 1

[Istvan Albert]

The topic of the site is strictly bioinformatics with one exception, the forums also allow meta-posts (posts about Biostar) like this one above.

The question that has been deleted had nothing to do with neither bioinformatics nor Biostar - it was simply a (somewhat sarcastic) call for people to use Google.

Answer 2

[Giovanni M Dall'Olio]

Hello Paulo, are you referring to this question, entitled "Should I google my question before asking here?" ?

I guess that the question was deleted because it was a bit redundant with what is explained in the FAQs and the rules of the forum. Moreover, it wasn't really bioinformatics related, and it would have been better posted in this forum section, or to the mailing list. So, it was deleted just to keep the main website clean - we try to keep only the bioinformatics-relevant questions to the site.

You are right that there have been fewer people participating lately, but this also means that we can use your help to make it better. Welcome back if you have decided to come back :-)

[Istvan Albert]

I don't think that there are fewer people participating (although I have not measured this since I am not sure what the right measure should be). It could be that we are getting more questions per day and that spreads people more thinly. Or perhaps it is all a perception of what one particular individual observes but does not reflect on the entire site.

Usage wise I've always seen a continuous and steady growth. To give you a sense in May 2011 we had 53K visits, 27K unique visitors and 132K pageviews. By May 2012 we had 118K visits, 64K unique visits and 242K pageviews.

Every metric that I have ever measured show a a steady and continuous growth in all measured parameters. After the first year we already had doom-and-gloom posts that stated that the Biostar is fading and things are going south - amusingly since then we have grown at least an order of magnitude.