"15 questions per day on average is a healthy beta." We're at 16.1 and, in my guess, falling.
One important factor to Stack Exchanges staying alive, IMO, is the evolution of its underlying topic, bringing in fresh questions each day.
Either the subject evolves...
It's easy to see in, for example, Stack Overflow: the continuous evolution of technology (programming languages, paradigms, platforms, applications) gives it a never-ending supply of new questions without having to microscope into the fractal details of the subject to find new things to ask about. This of course applies to Super User as well. And Stack Overflow itself continuously evolves! Hence a never-ending stream of questions at Meta. Office culture—no, more broadly, working culture evolves, from 9-5ers to freelancers, from startups to corporations, giving Workplace its lifeblood, and laws too—changing laws are also a big component to the evolution which supports Personal Finance and Money. One last interesting example is English Language & Usage, where both language and its more rapidly changing context give rise to new questions like "Is there a non-sexual phrase for sleeping with someone?".
...or the subject is huge (whether in breadth or depth)
On the other hand, there are sites whose underlying subjects don't necessarily evolve (or at least not very fast), e.g. History. But the sheer size and/or intricacy of the subject lends it sustained opportunities for exploration—delving in to find genuinely new and interesting questions. Though sites like Mathematica are bound to a (mostly) set language, from the (at least, seemingly) unlimited power of the language arises a huge domain of applications that users are continuously exploring, still surprised by the discovery of new challenges, new workarounds, and new techniques.
So I ask,
What kinds of questions will keep Beer.SE alive?
I have a preliminary opinion in mind, but one I don't feel qualified to develop into a full-fledged answer.
It just doesn't feel to me that Beer has as rich a history as, well, History itself, nor does it appear to lend itself to "new applications" and "ways." Once we exhaust general questions about classifications of beer, bottling and distribution, temperature and skunking, and such, it seems fathomable we might even get through the histories of most classes of beers, techniques for tasting and pairing beers... and then what? All these subjects are ones which neither evolve nor introduce any great breadth or depth to be explored. So what part of Beer does have these qualities, for generating new questions?
To me (and others too, maybe), it seems one of the only evolving aspects of beer we can latch onto, is specific beers and breweries. And putting such in the context of regions, too, would greatly expand what can be asked, and the specificity (and usefulness) of answers.
I think the usual culture against brand-specific questions and answers on SE, is understandable regarding, say, technology, where products and websites are often ephemeral, and more general answers would help direct future visitors toward the specific answers they need. And I think the usual culture against regional questions is understandable too, in that most communities don't want to end up with a hundred questions about the same thing, only differing in a seemingly arbitrary detail (location).
But, I don't know if those cultures have to carry over to Beer.SE for Beer.SE to be an equally interesting and useful community. Our very subject is embedded in its products, whereas for technology, the subject is often an abstraction away from the products. And, our "problems" regarding beer are sometimes going to be regional—finding beers to taste and exploring breweries seem like important activities for beer enthusiasts—activities necessarily tied to location.
What are your thoughts?
