I generated a graph that shows how average score in StackOverflow is falled down over the years.

So if you only have 100 points and your friend that signed up in 2008 has 400'000 points, this can be a reason.

Or maybe this is just an excuse that I'm telling to myself to don't cower and cry, who knows.

Source: http://data.stackexchange.com/stack...

Here is the sum of scores over years: http://data.stackexchange.com/stack...

surely the average is lower because of lots of new people who, initially having a low score, bring the average down a lot

@j4cobgarby I only considered the users with a score >10, you can see the query in the link

SO is very stingy with their votes, unfortunately.

I'd be more interested to see the median graph. Average doesn't tell you anything, especially when you have users like Jon Skeet who hit over 1m rep.

1) more users, which means
2) more idiots, who ask
3) more low-quality questions; resulting in
4) higher user frustrations, leading to
5) lower tolerance for poor quality content, and
6) higher standards, resulting in
7) fewer upvotes, and finally
8) lower average scores.

There are also more decent questions already answered, which may lower the overall quality of new questions, further exacerbating the above.