• 9 questions (~41% of responded; ~14% of total) had their first response from staff in the form of an answer. The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that answer getting posted was ~80d 21h (min. of ~23d 1h; max. of ~219d 22h; median of ~47d 3h).
• 1 questions (~5% of responded; ~2% of total) had their first response from staff in the form of a comment. The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that comment getting posted was ~86d 15h (min. of ~86d 15h; max. of ~86d 15h; median of ~86d 15h).
• 12 questions (~55% of responded; ~19% of total) had their first response from staff in the form of an edit (to remove the status-review tag and/or add another status tag, for the most part). The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that edit getting submitted was ~123d 3h (min. of ~2d 10h; max. of ~372d 5h; median of ~77d 11h).

• 15 questions (~71% of untagged; ~23% of total) got status-completed added to them.
• 1 questions (~5% of untagged; ~2% of total) got status-bydesign added to them.
• 2 questions (~10% of untagged; ~3% of total) got status-declined added to them.
• 1 questions (~5% of untagged; ~2% of total) got status-deferred added to them.
• 2 questions (~10% of untagged; ~3% of total) didn’t get a new status tag added.

• 9 questions (~41% of responded; ~14% of total) had their first response from staff in the form of an answer. The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that answer getting posted was ~80d 21h (min. of ~23d 1h; max. of ~219d 22h; median of ~47d 3h).
• 1 question (~5% of responded; ~2% of total) had its first response from staff in the form of a comment. The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that comment getting posted was ~86d 15h (min. of ~86d 15h; max. of ~86d 15h; median of ~86d 15h).
• 12 questions (~55% of responded; ~19% of total) had their first response from staff in the form of an edit (to remove the status-review tag and/or add another status tag, for the most part). The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that edit getting submitted was ~123d 3h (min. of ~2d 10h; max. of ~372d 5h; median of ~77d 11h).

• 15 questions (~71% of untagged; ~23% of total) got status-completed added to them.
• 1 question (~5% of untagged; ~2% of total) got status-bydesign added to them.
• 2 questions (~10% of untagged; ~3% of total) got status-declined added to them.
• 1 question (~5% of untagged; ~2% of total) got status-deferred added to them.
• 2 questions (~10% of untagged; ~3% of total) didn’t get a new status tag added.

Q4 2021

• Respond to 50% of Meta posts from across the network, to which status-review was added during this period.

• For this quarter, we are temporarily suspending the goal to respond to Meta posts from across the network, where status-review was added to it in a previous period. This is due to the holidays near the end of the year along with a bandwidth and staffing shortage on the Public Platform team. We plan to pick this target back up on Q1 2022.

• There's been a slowly growing backlog of status-deferred and status-planned questions. We'll be coming up with a plan to try to tackle those, in addition to the stuff tagged status-review.

• 3-vote close and reopen: back in Q2 2021 we requested that communities interested in taking part in an experiment to lower the number of close/reopen votes from 5 to 3 escalate posts requesting that change for CM attention. Catija has since concluded that experimented and posted its results here, so any communities interested in having their close/reopen threshold lowered to 3 votes should have moderators status-review a request that has the support of the community, if they haven't done so already in the past.
• Outdated answers: how to best increase the discoverability of newer answers so they have a better chance of rising to the top, and how to make it clearer which technology versions a particular answer applies to.
• New user onboarding: how to best guide new users through the process of successfully asking their first questions and engaging with the Stack Overflow community to get the support and information they need to start off on the right foot.
• Inbox notifications: how we might improve the Inbox to better help users triage and respond to their notifications.
• JavaScript migrations: any bugs potentially caused by the migration of our JavaScript - this can involve on-site JS issues, such as features or tools breaking, or userscripts that are impacted by the changes.

Oct-Dec 2021

• Respond to 50% of Meta posts from across the network, to which status-review was added during this period. [met, got to ~70%; see below for details]

• For this quarter, we are temporarily suspending the goal to respond to Meta posts from across the network, where status-review was added to it in a previous period. This is due to the holidays near the end of the year along with a bandwidth and staffing shortage on the Public Platform team. We plan to pick this target back up on Q1 2022. ["met/not met" not applicable]

• There's been a slowly growing backlog of status-deferred and status-planned questions. We'll be coming up with a plan to try to tackle those, in addition to the stuff tagged status-review. [met, item got roadmapped for Q1 2022; more details to come]

• 3-vote close and reopen: back in Q2 2021 we requested that communities interested in taking part in an experiment to lower the number of close/reopen votes from 5 to 3 escalate posts requesting that change for CM attention. Catija has since concluded that experimented and posted its results here, so any communities interested in having their close/reopen threshold lowered to 3 votes should have moderators status-review a request that has the support of the community, if they haven't done so already in the past.
• Outdated answers: how to best increase the discoverability of newer answers so they have a better chance of rising to the top, and how to make it clearer which technology versions a particular answer applies to.
• New user onboarding: how to best guide new users through the process of successfully asking their first questions and engaging with the Stack Overflow community to get the support and information they need to start off on the right foot.
• Inbox notifications: how we might improve the Inbox to better help users triage and respond to their notifications.

Stats for the period:

Overall numbers:

A total of 201 questions had status-review on them at some point during this period, and made their way into the process:

• 137 (~68%) got the tag added during this period; of these 96 (~70%) got a staff response (82 [~60%] within 2 weeks of the tag getting added), and 87 (~64%) got status-review removed.
• 64¹ (~32%) already had the tag on them; of these 22 (~34%) got a staff response, and 21 (~33%) got status-review removed.

New this period:

A total of 137 questions across all Meta sites got status-review added to them. The tag was added by a staff member on 69 (~50%) of these, and the other 68 (~50%) had the tag added by a moderator.

This means there was a larger amount of posts escalated when compared to the previous period (+22 posts; ~+19%).

The majority of questions came from MSE, followed by the various Metas from all over the network, and MSO:

• 79 (~58%) from MSE.
• 20 (~15%) from MSO.
• 38 (~28%) from other child Metas.

Most of the questions escalated were bug reports or feature requests, but there were posts of all types escalated to staff (note that tags are not mutually exclusive):

• 82 bug
• 25 feature-request
• 19 discussion
• 10 support

A total of 96 questions (~70%) got some sort of response from staff after the tag was added, and 82 (~60% of total; 85% of responded) got a response within 2 weeks of status-review getting added. The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and any sort of response was ~5d 20h (min. of ~1m; max. of ~48d 18h; median of ~20h). Of these:

• 27 questions (~28% of responded; ~20% of total) had their first response from staff in the form of an answer. The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that answer getting posted was ~10d 20h (min. of ~1m; max. of ~48d 18h; median of ~2d 22h). 18 (~19% of responded; ~13% of total) of these questions got an answer within 2 weeks of the tag getting added to them.
• 36 questions (~38% of responded; ~26% of total) had their first response from staff in the form of a comment. The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that comment getting posted was ~3d 13h (min. of ~1m; max. of ~35d 18h; median of ~2h). 33 (~34% of responded; ~24% of total) of these questions got a comment within 2 weeks of the tag getting added to them.
• 33 questions (~34% of responded; ~24% of total) had their first response from staff in the form of an edit (to remove the status-review tag and/or add another status tag, for the most part). The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that edit getting submitted was ~4d 6h (min. of ~1m; max. of ~35d 19h; median of ~2d 2h). 31 (~32% of responded; ~23% of total) of these questions got an edit within 2 weeks of the tag getting added to them.

Most responses ended up resulting in a corresponding tag edit, and 87 (~64%) questions got status-review removed. 86 of these got removed by staff, and the other 1 by a moderator. Of these:

• 65 questions (~75% of untagged; ~47% of total) got status-completed added to them.
• 3 questions (~3% of untagged; ~2% of total) got status-bydesign added to them.
• 4 questions (~5% of untagged; ~3% of total) got status-declined added to them.
• 6 questions (~7% of untagged; ~4% of total) got status-deferred added to them.
• 3 questions (~3% of untagged; ~2% of total) got status-planned added to them.
• 6 questions (~7% of untagged; ~4% of total) didn’t get a new status tag added.

0 question that had been tagged status-review during this reporting period were also deleted over the reporting period.

It’s also worth noting that of the 96 posts that got a response from staff, 53 had status-review added by staff, and the other 43 by mods:

• 69 tagged by staff, 53 responded, 16 unresponded
• 68 tagged by mods, 43 responded, 25 unresponded

From previous periods:

A total of 64¹ questions across all Meta sites still had status-review on them at some point during this period. The tag had been added by a staff member on 21 (~33%) of these, and the other 43 (~67%) had the tag previously added by a moderator.

The majority of questions came from network Metas, followed by MSE, and MSO:

• 24 (~38%) from MSE.
• 15 (~23%) from MSO.
• 25 (~39%) from other child Metas.

Most of the questions escalated were bug reports or feature requests, but there were posts of all types escalated to staff (note that tags are not mutually exclusive):

• 32 bug
• 21 feature-request
• 14 discussion
• 6 support

A total of 22 of these questions (~34%) got some sort of response from staff during this period, and after the tag was added. The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and any sort of response was ~104d 5h (min. of ~2d 10h; max. of ~372d 5h; median of ~58d 20h). Of these:

• 9 questions (~41% of responded; ~14% of total) had their first response from staff in the form of an answer. The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that answer getting posted was ~80d 21h (min. of ~23d 1h; max. of ~219d 22h; median of ~47d 3h).
• 1 questions (~5% of responded; ~2% of total) had their first response from staff in the form of a comment. The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that comment getting posted was ~86d 15h (min. of ~86d 15h; max. of ~86d 15h; median of ~86d 15h).
• 12 questions (~55% of responded; ~19% of total) had their first response from staff in the form of an edit (to remove the status-review tag and/or add another status tag, for the most part). The average time elapsed between the tag getting added and that edit getting submitted was ~123d 3h (min. of ~2d 10h; max. of ~372d 5h; median of ~77d 11h).

Most responses ended up resulting in a corresponding tag edit, and 21 (~33%) questions got status-review removed. All 21 of these got removed by staff, and none by a moderator. Of these:

• 15 questions (~71% of untagged; ~23% of total) got status-completed added to them.
• 1 questions (~5% of untagged; ~2% of total) got status-bydesign added to them.
• 2 questions (~10% of untagged; ~3% of total) got status-declined added to them.
• 1 questions (~5% of untagged; ~2% of total) got status-deferred added to them.
• 2 questions (~10% of untagged; ~3% of total) didn’t get a new status tag added.

0 questions that had been tagged status-review during previous reporting periods were deleted over this reporting period.

It’s also worth noting that of the 22 posts that got a response from staff, 5 had status-review added by staff, and the other 17 by mods:

• 21 tagged by staff, 5 responded, 16 unresponded
• 43 tagged by mods, 17 responded, 26 unresponded

Footnotes:

¹ This number doesn't match the sum of unresponded posts reported in the previous period. I considered "unresponded" to mean posts that have had no response from staff. Those posts can, however, have had their status-review tag removed by a mod, and thus have been accounted for on that corresponding stat in the previous quarter. Furthermore, staff members leaving or joining the company can produce very slight discrepancies in this number.

Q4 2021

Targets:

• Respond to 50% of Meta posts from across the network, to which status-review was added during this period.

• For this quarter, we are temporarily suspending the goal to respond to Meta posts from across the network, where status-review was added to it in a previous period. This is due to the holidays near the end of the year along with a bandwidth and staffing shortage on the Public Platform team. We plan to pick this target back up on Q1 2022.

• There's been a slowly growing backlog of status-deferred and status-planned questions. We'll be coming up with a plan to try to tackle those, in addition to the stuff tagged status-review.

Guidance (see Q4 Community roadmap for more details, and stay tuned for the Public Platform Q4 roadmap post for even more details):

• 3-vote close and reopen: back in Q2 2021 we requested that communities interested in taking part in an experiment to lower the number of close/reopen votes from 5 to 3 escalate posts requesting that change for CM attention. Catija has since concluded that experimented and posted its results here, so any communities interested in having their close/reopen threshold lowered to 3 votes should have moderators status-review a request that has the support of the community, if they haven't done so already in the past.
• Outdated answers: how to best increase the discoverability of newer answers so they have a better chance of rising to the top, and how to make it clearer which technology versions a particular answer applies to.
• New user onboarding: how to best guide new users through the process of successfully asking their first questions and engaging with the Stack Overflow community to get the support and information they need to start off on the right foot.
• Inbox notifications: how we might improve the Inbox to better help users triage and respond to their notifications.

Q4 2021

Targets:

• Respond to 50% of Meta posts from across the network, to which status-review was added during this period.

• For this quarter, we are temporarily suspending the goal to respond to Meta posts from across the network, where status-review was added to it in a previous period. This is due to the holidays near the end of the year along with a bandwidth and staffing shortage on the Public Platform team. We plan to pick this target back up on Q1 2022.

• There's been a slowly growing backlog of status-deferred and status-planned questions. We'll be coming up with a plan to try to tackle those, in addition to the stuff tagged status-review.

Guidance (see Q4 Community roadmap for more details, and stay tuned for the Public Platform Q4 roadmap post for even more details):

• 3-vote close and reopen: back in Q2 2021 we requested that communities interested in taking part in an experiment to lower the number of close/reopen votes from 5 to 3 escalate posts requesting that change for CM attention. Catija has since concluded that experimented and posted its results here, so any communities interested in having their close/reopen threshold lowered to 3 votes should have moderators status-review a request that has the support of the community, if they haven't done so already in the past.
• Outdated answers: how to best increase the discoverability of newer answers so they have a better chance of rising to the top, and how to make it clearer which technology versions a particular answer applies to.
• New user onboarding: how to best guide new users through the process of successfully asking their first questions and engaging with the Stack Overflow community to get the support and information they need to start off on the right foot.
• Inbox notifications: how we might improve the Inbox to better help users triage and respond to their notifications.
• JavaScript migrations: any bugs potentially caused by the migration of our JavaScript - this can involve on-site JS issues, such as features or tools breaking, or userscripts that are impacted by the changes.