Dealing with old questions

Question

A quick search yields 2383 (as of posting) questions left open with zero answers. Subtracting out questions with negative scores and questions posted over the past two days, there's still 2363 questions left completely unanswered. How did we end up like this? I know that not all questions can be answered, but we don't always have new questions flooding in. Is there something we can do about decent questions from 2011 that just fell through the cracks?

Answer 1

I offer 300 points reward bounty to someone who answers 3 currently unanswered questions, each over 6 months old and of score at least +2 at the time of answering, with answers of score at least +3. Ping me here with links to claim reward.

_{No purchase necessary. Limit one offer per person or account. See store for details. Contest void where prohibited. Do not operate heavy machinery while participating. Patent pending. Side effects may vary. I reserve the right to modify or terminate this offer for any reason, without notice at any time. Participate at your own risk.}

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Thank you Ploni for answering these six old questions: 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^{(Note when Ploni participated the offer was for 250 points for 6 questions.)}

Thank you mbloch for answering these three old questions: 1, 2, 3

Thank you רבות מחשבות for answering these three old questions: 1, 2, 3

Thank you Alex for answering these three old questions: 1, 2, 3

Thank you Joel K for answering these three old questions: 1, 2, 3

Thank you aBochur for answering these three old questions: 1, 2, 3

Thank you Monica Cellio for answering these three old questions: 1, 2, 3

Answer 2

We could make a list of high-value (as indicated by net score), tough (as indicated by duration unanswered) questions that ought to be answerable by top experts in their areas, identify, for each one, names of experts (including, e.g., rabbis who don't frequent the internet) who ought to be able to answer, and then solicit help from community members who can reach out to those experts.

Answer 3

Some of these unanswered questions may have enough material for an answer hiding in the comments. I've created a query that attempts to find such questions.

-- Finds question posts that are open, unanswered, at least six months old,
-- and with comments saying the word "answer". Counts up such comments as 
-- well as comments that look even more like they're asking for an answer.
-- Goal: Find questions that have answers hiding in the comments.

Clicking on questions listed by this query, seeing if there's answer material in the comment stream, and if so, converting that material into an answer could be a worthwhile exercise.

Ideas for making the query more effective and/or alternative queries for this purpose are welcome.

Answer 4

Maybe we should feature some old questions. People can go through and recommend high quality questions that somehow fell through the cracks, and we can promote them.

One possible way to do this could be an ad that links to our list of questions we'd like to draw attention to.