How to avoid decreasing user activity?

Question

At this moment we have 59 visits/day (one of the lowest rates since the start of the private beta).

1. When Community Promotion Ads can be launched?

2. How to encourage users to get involved?

3. Should we promote HR on Area51? I mean inviting users to participate and help us.

Answer 1

There is an excellent answer by Gilles, on Meta.SE that talks about the growth pattern of a community.

A dip in activity after the private beta is common. Quoting from that answer:

The sites that fail in private beta start are mostly the ones that peter out on day 2. The sites that fail in public beta are the ones where there is no growth at all and the existing community drifts off. The flat bit at the beginning of the public beta can last for many months; as long as an engaged community remains active, there isn't really a time limit.

This nicely fits in with the new graduation announcements and how SE looks at site outlooks:

Thanks to many devoted users, it’s grown clear that smaller SE sites can do a great job of maintaining themselves and producing high quality Q&A. Not every site is going to be a blockbuster success, but our small sites are serving their own communities well. We’re proud of you, and we want you here.

What does this mean? If there's enough moderation for a public beta site to consistently remain free of spam, for flags to be cleared, and for our Be Nice policy to be upheld, your site will remain open. However, if community leaders drop off, flags sit without being addressed, and we can’t find any suitable volunteers to step forward, the site gets closed.

Our job, at this point, is to keep our site filled with high quality posts. With that, we work on promoting it in whatever ways we decide are appropriate for the community. The combination of promoting the site and our continued involvement, will provide the useful Q&A site we are striving to be.

It's not always easy, but I don't see a reason to be discouraged about anything at this point. We have an active base to answer questions. We have an active base that is working behind the scenes on Meta to grow and guide the site. We have an active group of users in the chat room to discuss the site, life in general and my need for a very specific piece of hardware:

I'm looking for a piece of hardware that can torch leaves on the ground but not light my house or the trees on fire.

Answer 2

Important note: Don't take Area 51 stats too seriously. They're both notoriously unreliable, and are a two-week rolling average. So soon after we went public, they'll still be affected by the low visit numbers from the private beta, and won't reflect reality. Users with 5k reputation can view more accurate traffic data at /site-analytics (so: nobody yet), and moderators have access to an analytics dashboard.

That said, now I'll answer the questions:

• Community Promotion Ads are being prepared. There is a nominal threshold (6 votes total) at which an ad is deemed "accepted" and can be posted on other sites. Speaking of which, there are a couple meeting that threshold, which I'll coordinate the posting of elsewhere soon.
• This is a waiting game. The low visit count is partly down to A51 stats being weird, and partly down to our young age as a site. As people find out about us, they'll come in. That said, Open Source has a low view count (139/day last time I knew it), and there's still plenty activity there, so don't get too downhearted.
• This we have done already. Area 51 is the birthplace of a site, where it's dreamed up and formed. The continued existence of the proposal page serves to remind people that we exist and be a source of (strange) statistics, but it doesn't and shouldn't play a massive part in promotion now that the site is live. Focus instead on promotion to the rest of the network.

Answer 3

A lot of the problem is that public beta just started. Speaking from past experiences, I had no clue new sites were launched until I went through the drop-down list again. Many people just don't know about us yet.

A low visit count is sort of expected at this point, but 59 views is still disheartening. We just need to promote via ads and contacting other sites.

A lot of things can be solved simply by having moderators, which we'll hopefully be getting sometime soon, but a big part is also a waiting game.