Stack Exchange — opensource.stackexchange.com

The content of opensource.stackexchange.com (https://opensource.stackexchange.com/), a Stack Exchange question-and-answer site, as published in the Stack Exchange Data Dump of April 2024 on the Internet Archive. The posts table holds 36,831 rows: 11,967 posts (4,763 questions, 6,882 answers, 157 tag wiki excerpts, 157 tag wikis, 4 posts of type 6 and 4 posts of type 7) and 24,864 comments, written between 23 June 2015 and 31 March 2024. Beside it are 27,699 user accounts, 81,282 votes, 38,868 badges awarded, 206 tags, 37,260 post revisions and 2,199 links between posts. Every answer keeps the question it answers and every comment the post it was written on, so the threads can be rebuilt. The Internet Archive item describes the dump as anonymised; the votes table names the voter in only 83 rows.

#Expertise network#Open source#Software license#Stack exchange data dump

Download data package README Original files as received BibTeX JSONSimilar datasets

Analytics

The interactive network needs JavaScript.

· graph.json

The full graph has 3,715 nodes; this view shows the 1,000-node sample the pipeline drew for display. Node size is centrality, colour is community.

3.7K
Nodes
6K
Edges
4.32e-04
Density
54
Components
-0.2421
Assortativity
1.8%
Reciprocity
2.3K
Bridges
Most central nodes
2710.01481
550.01265
290.01023
690.00969
1990.00646
1750.00619
6060.00619
1380.00592
370.00592
1680.00565
Content metrics

36,831 records scored · min–maxmean ± 0.675 σ (the interquartile range if the values are roughly normal)mean

x scoreμ 2.361 ± 5.919
min -8max 242
x view countμ 1.3K ± 4.3K
min 15max 138.7K
x answer countμ 1.445 ± 1.107
min 0max 11
x comment countμ 2.078 ± 2.841
min 0max 29
x favorite count2.2% true
true 2.2%false 97.8%
9.8
Flesch–Kincaid grade
US school grade level
10.6
Automated readability index
Frequent terms
licensecodesourcesoftwaregpluseworkopencopyrightprojectquestionlicenseslicensedfreelikelibrarywantdonprogramfilemitversiontermsanswerneedcasedistributewaypeopleoriginalthinkcopyexamplederivativedifferentrightspublicfileslegallgplapachenoticecommercialusersdoesnincludeuserauthorlicenceapplication
Topic clusters

Topic 0

copyright
work
right
author
law
derivative
domain
material

Topic 1

license
creative
commons
licence
use
file
licensing
software

Topic 2

project
open
source
people
developer
software
contribute
community

Topic 3

agpl
network
user
server
source
modify
code
software

Topic 4

mit
license
notice
copyright
include
software
copy
text

Topic 5

fork
github
repository
git
branch
project
repo
commit

Topic 6

lgpl
library
link
gcc
application
code
exception
use

Topic 7

apache
license
file
notice
project
include
add
works

Topic 8

kernel
linux
driver
hardware
system
device
gnu
software

Topic 9

thank
answer
appreciate
question
point
clear
help
helpful

Topic 10

bsd
clause
license
zlib
notice
code
copyright
gpl

Topic 11

answer
question
think
edit
ask
accept
point
try
Show all 25 topics

Topic 12

binary
source
distribute
code
app
compile
distribution
build

Topic 13

open
source
license
commercial
use
project
software
want

Topic 14

gpl
distribute
code
source
library
proprietary
program
require

Topic 15

law
lawyer
court
legal
jurisdiction
case
answer
ask

Topic 16

datum
model
database
dataset
data
train
training
use

Topic 17

gpl
distribute
license
copyright
code
work
reviewer
term

Topic 18

patent
idea
grant
infringe
invention
software
algorithm
clause

Topic 19

cla
contributor
contribution
sign
project
agreement
cta
copyright

Topic 20

image
docker
debian
container
package
build
software
license

Topic 21

free
freedom
software
open
definition
source
libre
osi

Topic 22

gpl
license
gnu
compatible
version
licence
commercial
code

Topic 23

mit
gpl
license
code
apache
library
project
file

Topic 24

openjdk
oracle
java
classpath
exception
jre
jdk
javafx
Top hashtags
#284
#172
#include63
#360
#mereaggregation60
#define48
#gplplugins35
#license24
#421
#gplincompatiblelibs19
#can15
#gplrequiresourcepostedpublic14
#iflibraryisgpl14
#613
#internaldistribution12
#gploutput11
#developerviolate9
#gplinproprietarysystem9
#gplstaticvsdynamic9
#endif8

Computed over the full corpus.

Record

Catalog key
stackexchange-opensource-stackexchange-com
Authors
Stack Exchange, Inc.
Year
2024
Source paper
Stack Exchange Data Dump
License
CC BY-SA 3.0 / 4.0 (by contribution date) (CC-BY-SA-3.0 AND CC-BY-SA-4.0)
Records
41,741
Nodes
3,715
Edges
5,956 (directed)
Nodes are
user (Stack Exchange account)
Edges are
answer collaboration (A answered B's question)
Attributes
nodes have attributes; edges have attributes
Text corpus
question titles, post bodies, comment text, tag names
Languages
en
Collected
2015/2024 (2010s, 2020s)
Tasks
From the graph: link prediction, community detection
Region
Global (inferred: the platform is used worldwide)

Provenance

Originally published at
https://archive.org/details/stackexchange link checked
Original files as received
The source files, unconverted, kept for reference: mirrored on echo.directory on 2026-10-09, 16.9 MB across 1 files. Checksums in MANIFEST.json. For use, start with the data package below.
Data package
Version 1.0.0 of this dataset as an ECHO Data Package: posts (36,831 rows), users (27,699 rows), x_votes (81,282 rows), x_badges (38,868 rows), x_tags (206 rows), x_post_history (37,260 rows), x_post_links (2,199 rows).
Structure
Temporal (timestamped), Node attributes, Text, Threaded conversations

How to cite

BibTeX

@misc{echo2026,
  title  = {ECHO: Exploratory Compendium of Humanity Online},
  author = {Switzer, Braden and Zafarani, Reza},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://echo.directory},
  note   = {Syracuse University}
}

@misc{stackexchange_2024,
  title     = {Stack Exchange Data Dump},
  author    = {{Stack Exchange, Inc.}},
  year      = {2024},
  month     = {apr},
  publisher = {Internet Archive},
  url       = {https://archive.org/details/stackexchange}
}

APA

Switzer, B., & Zafarani, R. (2026). ECHO: Exploratory Compendium of Humanity Online [Data repository]. Syracuse University. https://echo.directory

Stack Exchange, Inc. (2024). Stack Exchange — opensource.stackexchange.com [Data set]. https://stackexchange-opensource.echo.directory/

MLA

Switzer, Braden, and Reza Zafarani. ECHO: Exploratory Compendium of Humanity Online. Syracuse University, 2026, echo.directory.

Stack Exchange, Inc. Stack Exchange — opensource.stackexchange.com. 2024, stackexchange-opensource.echo.directory/.

BibTeX · RIS · CSL-JSON

Similar datasets 10 all with scores →