Code Review has been in beta for 1041 days, so nearly 3 years (Area 51).
I was wondering: why is it still in beta and will it ever graduate?
Update: Just graduated... ;)
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3\$\begingroup\$ Probably because the activity is still to low. \$\endgroup\$– MyrtleJun 21, 2012 at 13:08
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\$\begingroup\$ By the standards of the StackExchange network, the CodeReview website is tiny :(. \$\endgroup\$– CorbinJun 22, 2012 at 8:56
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2\$\begingroup\$ I believe if Code Review would be official and there would be the ability to flag questons e.g. on SO to migrate to CR, activity would increase, as there are often questions like "whats wrong with my code", that are closed as not a real question, too localized or as not welcome to the community.. \$\endgroup\$– FabianJun 22, 2012 at 14:23
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2\$\begingroup\$ "What's wrong with my code" questions are off topic on CR though as CR expects correct code. I browse SO fairly often, and I don't often see questions that would be better suited here, though I guess even a tiny piece of SO's traffic coming here would be a significant boost for CR :). \$\endgroup\$– CorbinJun 22, 2012 at 21:21
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4\$\begingroup\$ blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/10/when-will-my-site-graduate is an interesting read. I suspect that's probably the reason that CR is still in beta actually. Only 5 people could vote to close, and no one would have access to mod tools (other than mods of course). \$\endgroup\$– CorbinJun 22, 2012 at 21:30
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2\$\begingroup\$ At the time of writing, StackOverflow has 3M questions, while CR has 4k - That's a big gap. Also, it could be that everyone just wants code to work rather than optimize it, kinda like the "just get it done and working" habit. \$\endgroup\$– JosephJun 23, 2012 at 3:55
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5\$\begingroup\$ @JosephtheDreamer: IT Security, Role-playing Games, Theoretical Computer Science has fewer questions than Code Review and they are all launched. \$\endgroup\$– palacsintJun 23, 2012 at 15:55
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\$\begingroup\$ For what its' worth, a quick look at the Area 51 pages supports the theory that lack of low rep users is what's holding the site back from launch. \$\endgroup\$– CorbinJun 24, 2012 at 1:55
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\$\begingroup\$ Just to follow up, since it just came up in another question, as of now there are 21 would-be closers and 8 would-be admins, both of which are above the recommendations. \$\endgroup\$– BobsonJan 9, 2013 at 21:28
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\$\begingroup\$ @JosephtheDreamer We're now at 12k questions 20k answers. Also I think SO as the biggest site on SE is not really comparable to CR. \$\endgroup\$– kleinfreundJan 27, 2014 at 20:10
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\$\begingroup\$ @Rolfl what makes you say that ? \$\endgroup\$– konijnSep 29, 2014 at 19:36
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1\$\begingroup\$ @konijn - Graduation process announced \$\endgroup\$– rolflSep 29, 2014 at 19:40
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2 Answers
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The article "When Will My Site Graduate" makes an important point - the community is a crucial part of the process - especially the senior members who have accumulated the rep necessary to have the critical privileges.
In Code Review, few users have the 10,000 points necessary to access the moderator tools; none has achieved the 20,000 trusted user threshold. Compare that to IT security, where there are six people above 10,000. Role-playing games has 10, on even fewer questions.
One fundamental problem with Code Review as a community is that there is not enough voting. Voting is what powers a site.
If you want to see the site graduate, do more voting. Vote for good questions, even if they don't help you, personally. Vote for good answers.
Voting will help encourage more good questions and more good answers. It will help us retain users. Recognition of good work is something that just about everyone can understand and appreciate.
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1\$\begingroup\$ So it's about too less high-rep-users and not enough voting activity. Do you think Code Review will make the step to graduate in time, or is this not very likely as the site has launched nearly 1,5 years ago? \$\endgroup\$– FabianJun 25, 2012 at 8:48
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6\$\begingroup\$ I have extensive experience with one other SE site. That site has a core group of users, and each has specialties. The members of the group frequently ask questions, answer questions, vote on questions and answers, and hang out in chat. Code Review is a different animal in that the questions come from a larger number of users - thus fewer questions per user, and there are so many specialized questions (I don't know anything about python or delphi and my C/C++ is very rusty). Since most questions fall into ~15 categories, a similar core could still form. If not, the site will languish. My $0.02 \$\endgroup\$ Jun 25, 2012 at 11:52
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2\$\begingroup\$ I have to admit that I'm not voting enough myself. I only have 5 votes for the month on this site, but 32 on the other. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 25, 2012 at 12:23
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1\$\begingroup\$ Part of the problem is that it's harder to earn reputation on Code Review, because each question and answer has a small audience. On other sites, you can stumble on someone else's questions and answers via a Google search, and discover that you had the same question and find an existing solution. Those situations can earn you drive-by upvotes years after the original thread occurred. Perhaps Code Review's privilege thresholds should be adjusted to take this effect into account. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 15, 2013 at 18:48
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I was about to ask "How long will CR be on beta" when I saw this question in the "Similar Questions" list.
I love this site, it's a great (no, AWESOME) idea, regardless of how suitable it is for QA format (I find it actually is quite a good fit, because the "Q" is the reQuest, and one or more reviews come from reviewers, makes total sense - OP should accept the review that addresses the most points, in the best posted way).
As much as I love it, I seldom come by. To this date I visited SO 343 days, 130 consecutive (yeah, fanatic!) in 1 year & 7 months out of which maybe 7 months were on-and-off; I've been a member of CR for 5 months, and visited only 51 days (shame on me!). I'll come to CR when I have code ready to be reviewed, not just for the heck of reading other people's posts - and that is the issue.
I think people who love CR should be just as excited about it as they are about SO (well, I know I should).
On SO I browse the questions list, pick one, read it and, if it's well asked I'll upvote it; if there are typos or if the wording is bad I'll edit the post. If there are answers I'll read them and upvote any that provides useful information to the question, or if I learned something. And I'll downvote something that's just wrong, I'll comment on poorly written posts, ask for clarifications, etc.
We should be doing the same on CR. All the time. All of us. What will make CR bloom is our participation. We (the community) are CR. If we all take it for granted and let it rot, it will just die. And that would be a great loss.
From this day on I will make sure I visit as often as possible, read as many posts as I can and vote as often as possible. If we all do that the site will eventually come out of beta.
And let's make CR t-shirts! (seriously!)
answered Sep 4, 2013 at 16:55
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4\$\begingroup\$ Agreed. :-) I first came here because I wanted some of my code to be reviewed. But, I never thought I'd become so attracted to this place. My question-asking soon became question-answering, editing, voting... pretty much the best of all worlds. I will continue to do my part for this site, even if graduation still isn't quite in the near future. If anything, I don't want to see this site get shut down. SO intimidates me anyway (seriously). :-P \$\endgroup\$– JamalSep 4, 2013 at 18:15