Trend of google-apps-script Tag on Stackoverflow 2022

[Tanaike]

I published a report. In 2021, the number of questions with "goolge-apps-script" tag is almost the same as that of 2020. And, the number of questions for one answerer is increased proportionally to the square of year.

https://gist.github.com/tanaikech/e258f30182fdd6609d94d87805914caa

[Alan Wells]

Thank you for the information it is very interesting. Is there any way to determine if some of the questions were marked as duplicates? Is there anyway to get data on the number of views for existing questions. The reason I ask is that there could theoretically be more Apps Script users, but their questions were already answered on Stack Overflow. It would also be interesting to know if there was a spike up in questions about new Classes, Methods or bugs. I don't know if there's a way to get that information or not. I would have thought that Covid would have increased the interest in Apps Script, but I don't know how theories like that would be confirmed or not.

If interest in Apps Script is "flattening" it would be interesting to know how that compares to Microsoft products.

[Tanaike]

Thank you for your comment. About a report of the duplicated questions, this can be achieved. I have published at https://tanaikech.github.io/2020/10/07/statistical-analysis-of-duplicated-questions-for-google-apps-script-tag-in-stackoverflow/

About the number of views, I think that this is interesting data. This value can be retrieved by Stackexchange API. My report is automatically put using Stackexchange API with Goolge Apps Script. When you want to simply search the data, you can also use Stackexchange Data Explore. https://data.stackexchange.com/stackoverflow/queries

About "It would also be interesting to know if there was a spike up in questions about new Classes, Methods or bugs.", I agree with you. For example, when some key words are checked from the questions, these statistics might be able to be obtained. The data in Stackoverflow brings the important data. I would like to think of more analysis using the data.

[Alan Wells]

Thank you for the follow up and the work you've done. The graph shown in your report that has a huge spike up in duplicate questions from 2019 to 2020 makes me wonder if there are people who want answers, but aren't willing to search for them. And there also seems to be fewer people answering Apps Script questions. I can relate to that statistic because I've stopped answering Apps Script questions on Stack Overflow. I've lost interest. It's not unusual for people to go through a phase, and then move on to something else. I guess for me, much of the excitement for Apps Script has "worn off." And for me it's not pandemic related.

[Bruce Mcpherson]

Great work Tanaike. Very interesting.

I think the comment I've seen about Stack Overflow being intimidating for 'citizen developers' is very true, and most likely puts people with beginner questions off. Ironically the pedantry there is generally not from other Apps Scripters who actually might be able to answer the question, but is a depressing feature of Stack Overflow policeman nowadays. Someone else mentioned on this thread that they've given up stack overflow - and I think many of us have.

I still miss the Google+ group we used to have - it was a  much friendlier place, and because it was an Apps Script community, you were more likely to get a good answer, and you'd be more likely to want to give one if you could help. 

Thanks to all on this group who give their time to help out.

[Martin Hawksey]

Agree with Bruce and the report continues to be a great way to get a sense of some of the apps script trends. 

I had similar thoughts to Bruce in that as Google targets 'citizen developers' this may have an impact on SO usage. There might also be other factors at play such as better documentation which I know the team at Google continue to work hard at, as well as a larger corpus of community contributions, courses and other resources/places. I've shared the report and my thoughts here https://pulse.appsscript.info/p/2022/01/trend-of-the-google-apps-script-tag-on-stack-overflow-for-2021-apps-script-in-the-decline/

.. also thank you to all the people here who continue to make this group and friendly place to get advice  

[Tanaike]

Thank you for your comments. I thought that the comments are very important. When I saw the figure of "Year vs. number of Questioners and Answerers", I can see the new questioners are also reduced while the answerers are reduced in 2021. Also, I think that the situation which can easily ask various questions is very important for the users. I think that this trend data includes the current situation at Stackoverflow. In order to be in such a situation, I would like to cooperate with that as much as I can.

[Andrew Apell]

I went for months without visiting Stack Overflow. They have some good advice on JavaScript and, lately, I've been using it to help me switch from Windows to Linux (after many years away 🙂) BUT, if I have Apps Script related questions, I'll always ask it here.

In fact, every time I see an apps script issue on another forum, I always direct them here.

Who knows? Perhaps folks are finding it easier and better to come to this community instead of going to SO and that might have affected the statistics as observed.

[Alan Wells]

Take the best medicine in the correct dose at the right time. Use the correct tool for the job in the correct way. All Apps Script resources have their advantages and disadvantages. This group is better for general advice and personalized help than Stack Overflow. But I've rarely seen a post from this group come up in an internet search. A discussion like this would be off topic for Stack Overflow, so this group is better for sharing thoughts about and experiences with Apps Script. There is also a Facebook Apps Script group and a Slack Apps Script group.