It’s that time of the year again! As we bid farewell to the year that's concluded and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the preceding calendar year.
As most of you here might be aware, sites on the Stack Exchange network are moderated somewhat differently to other sites on the web:
We designed the Stack Exchange network engine to be mostly self-regulating, in that we amortize the overall moderation cost of the system across thousands of teeny-tiny slices of effort contributed by regular, everyday users.
-- A Theory of Moderation
That doesn't eliminate the need for having moderators altogether, but it does mean that the bulk of moderation work is carried out by regular folks — folks like you. Every bit of time and effort y'all contribute to the site gives you access to more privileges you can use to help in this effort, all of which produce a cumulative effect that makes a big difference in ensuring Stack Exchange sites remain a valuable source of high-quality content on the web.
So as we leave 2024 behind and spring into 2025, let us look back at what we accomplished as a community... by looking at some data! Below is a breakdown of moderation actions performed on Software Engineering over the past 12 months:
| Action | Moderators | Community User1 | Community2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| All comments on a post moved to chat | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Answer flags handled | 195 | 136 | 0 |
| Answers flagged | 28 | 40 | 263 |
| Bounties canceled | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Comment flags handled | 347 | 67 | 6 |
| Comments deleted8 | 620 | 0 | 1,026 |
| Comments flagged | 0 | 0 | 420 |
| Comments undeleted | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Escalations to the Community Manager team | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Posts bumped | 0 | 421 | 0 |
| Posts deleted7 | 261 | 634 | 384 |
| Posts locked | 2 | 112 | 0 |
| Posts undeleted | 6 | 2 | 35 |
| Posts unlocked | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Question flags handled6 | 263 | 503 | 43 |
| Questions closed | 157 | 630 | 4 |
| Questions flagged6 | 10 | 35 | 783 |
| Questions merged | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Questions migrated | 5 | 4 | 0 |
| Questions protected | 4 | 2 | 242 |
| Questions reopened | 7 | 19 | 2 |
| Questions unprotected | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Revisions redacted | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tag highlight language set | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tag synonyms created | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tag synonyms proposed | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Tags merged | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Tasks reviewed5: "Close votes" | 15 | 0 | 33 |
| Tasks reviewed5: "First answers" | 2 | 0 | 386 |
| Tasks reviewed5: "First questions" | 4 | 0 | 464 |
| Tasks reviewed5: "Late answers" | 3 | 0 | 120 |
| Tasks reviewed5: "Low quality posts" | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| Tasks reviewed5: "Reopen votes" | 5 | 0 | 35 |
| Tasks reviewed5: "Suggested edits" | 22 | 23 | 483 |
| Tasks reviewed5: "Triage" | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| User banned from review | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| User review-bans lifted early | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| User suspensions lifted early | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Users contacted | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Users deleted | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Users destroyed4 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Users suspended3 | 15 | 295 | 0 |
Footnotes
1 This refers to the automated systems otherwise known as user #-1.
2 This refers to the membership of Software Engineering without diamonds next to their names.
3 The system will suspend users under three circumstances: when a user is recreated after being previously suspended, when a user is recreated after being destroyed for spam or abuse, and when a network-wide suspension is in effect on an account.
4 A "destroyed" user is deleted along with all that they had posted: questions, answers, comments. Generally used as an expedient way of getting rid of spam.
5 This counts every review that was submitted (not skipped) - so the 2 suggested edits reviews needed to approve an edit would count as 2, the goal being to indicate the frequency of moderation actions. This also applies to flags, etc.
6 Includes close flags (but not close or reopen votes). The community2 can handle these flags by at least one person voting to close a question that has a close flag.
7 This ignores numerous deletions that happen automatically in response to some other action.
8 This includes comments deleted by their own authors (which also account for some number of handled comment flags).
Further reading:
Wanna see how these numbers have changed over time? We posted a similar report here last year: 2023: a year in moderation
You can also check out this report on other sites
Or peruse detailed information on the number of questions closed and reopened across all sites
Wishing you all a happy 2025! ^_^