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Questions per day 15 questions per day on average is a healthy beta, 5 questions or fewer per day is worrying. A healthy site generates lots of good content to make sure users keep coming back.

We have 3.2, RPG has 4.5, both below the worry line. Sum is 7.7, still little more then half the "healty" value, but at least over the red line.

Users Every site needs a solid group of core users to assist in moderating the site. We recommend:

  • 150 users with 200+ rep
  • 10 users with 2,000+ rep
  • 5 users with 3,000+ rep

We are slightly below the line, RPG is over it — though I suppose many users frequent both sites.

Visits/day: 1,500 visits per day is good, 500 visits per day is worrying. A great site benefits people outside the community. Eventually, 90% of a site's traffic should come from search engines.

We are at a worrying 358, while RPG is better at 764. Combined that would make 1122, which is still below the "good", but more than double over the worry line.

Now, I know that RPGs and Boardgames are two different things, but the audience is vastly the same, and while different they are quite related.

I'd rather have two separate sites, but if we risk one (or both!) not making out of beta, I'd say merge them if that would help them survive.

Sure, RPG is flooded with D&D questions, which I personally find totally uninteresting, but that's beside the point. I guess.

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I wouldn't mind merging with RPGs (though my roleplaying days are more or less behind me). As you say there is good crossover between the two groups, and the chances of cross-fertilization are high. I also find it notable that, when I post questions about Magic The Gathering, I get a lot of answers from people with <100 reputation! There's no sense in us being snobby about things that clearly help invigorate our site, and widen its perceived appeal.

The original Stack Overflow happily has questions about the intricacies of C memory allocation sitting side by side with stuff about WordPress and jQuery. For a Stack site to work, and work well, it is clearly not necessary for every question to appeal, or even be comprehensible, to every user! In fact it might even inspire us to investigate things outside our comfort zone...

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The only valid reason to merge is if you honestly believe these two topics are so related that these communities belong together.

Merging out of a sense of "if we don't, we can't survive" is not a valid motivation for merging. You have to make a case that these communities love the same things (and to a lesser extent, have common "enemies" or things you dislike), and having their question sets merged would appeal to both communities.

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    That's an interesting question @Jeff. The two hobbies certainly live side by side IRL, and I expect the individual gamer overlap is quite high.
    – C. Ross
    Commented Feb 19, 2011 at 15:09
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    You can normally buy boardgames and roleplaying games in the same stores. Then again, sometimes you can buy comic books in these same stores too... and that might be pushing it. (Still, games are games. Why lump "board games and card games" together, but not the much more thematically similar "boardgames and roleplaying games"?)
    – thesunneversets
    Commented Mar 3, 2011 at 22:50
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    @thesunneversets: I know this is old, but... In that case, why wouldn't we just merge this site and RPGs into Gaming, which gets considerably more traffic than either?
    – Powerlord
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 19:44
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    @Powerlord: I see a lot more connection between pen-and-paper roleplaying games and boards-and-counters boardgames than I do with online gaming. Maybe that's arbitrary? I think it's something to do with getting together with a group of 3-5 friends and making your own fun out of some very simple components.
    – thesunneversets
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 20:10
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    @powerlord that does not seem like a good idea to me; these communities are quite different, as @thesun indicated
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Apr 13, 2011 at 0:35
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Right or wrong, I think this question is better posed to area51.

FWIW, there is no timeline to get out of beta. There has been only one site shut down related to low traffic.

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  • Oh good, I thought the risk was higher! Can this be moved if need be, or I'd need to open a new post?
    – o0'.
    Commented Feb 17, 2011 at 16:12
  • @Looris - I don't believe I can migrate a question to area51 so a new one would be best.
    – Pat Ludwig Mod
    Commented Feb 17, 2011 at 17:01
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    Correct, no timeline on beta. You're getting questions, those questions are getting answers, and your traffic isn't dropping. It is normal for sites to have horizontal traffic and then hit a tipping point where the stats curve upward and climb each week. That's the right time graduate. We are happy to keep BCG in beta until then, so a merge out of desperation to save the site shouldn't be on the radar, in addition to what Jeff mentions in his answer.
    – Rebecca Chernoff
    Commented Feb 19, 2011 at 6:34
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I distinctly don't want to merge. any more so than we should answer questions about Star Trek here. I'm doing what I can for this site, because I've always loved board games, and I find BGG frustrating for doing what SE does beautifully. I think it's really just a matter of advertising and time before we get up above any threshold values.

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