Fewer than 1,000 new questions now posted by users on Stack Overflow per month
The platform has disabled two cleanup scripts and is preparing changes for a third, which handles abandoned closed questions.
In September, the platform saw 969 new questions, and in October, 808. The decline in activity is attributed to the proliferation of AI tools that allow users to quickly obtain answers to technical queries.
In an announcement dated October 9, 2026, Stack Overflow reported the disabling of RemoveDeadQuestions and RemoveAbandonedQuestions. These scripts automatically deleted old questions without answers that met specific criteria for rating and views.
The rules for RemoveAbandonedClosed are planned to be changed. This mechanism deletes abandoned closed questions without positive or accepted answers if the posts have not been edited and have not received new votes for reopening.
