Our Methodology(or How We Perform Digital Autopsies)
At "Is This Tech Dead?", we've developed a sophisticated system to calculate exactly how screwed you are for choosing that technology stack. Our Deaditude Score™ is like a health inspector for tech showing up unannounced, poking around in dark corners, and leaving with a clipboard full of horrifying facts you'd rather not know.
Deaditude Score™ Calculation (Or: Quantifying Your Poor Life Choices)
Our Deaditude Score ranges from 0 (thriving like venture capital at a buzzword convention) to 10 (so dead it makes COBOL look cutting-edge). We combine metrics from across the internet into one soul-crushing number that accurately measures how much you should regret your technology decisions.
Data Sources & Weights (a.k.a. Our Blame Distribution)
- GitHub Activity20%
- Google Jobs(or lack thereof)20%
- Reddit Complaints15%
- Stack Overflow Panic15%
- YouTube Desperation15%
- Hacker News Contempt15%
Score Interpretation (a.k.a. Your Career Forecast)
- 0-2:Very Active — Silicon Valley is currently throwing money at it like a tech bro at a crypto nightclub.
- 3-4:Active — Recruiters will still spam you on LinkedIn. You'll be employable for at least 2-3 more years.
- 5-6:Stable — The "Java Zone" – boring but pays the bills. Mostly maintained by people who are too tired to learn something new.
- 7-8:Declining — Only one guy in Belarus still has commit access and he hasn't been seen since 2018.
- 9-10:Abandoned — This tech is deader than your Tamagotchi. Time to update that résumé, champ.
Detailed Platform Methodologies (The Gory Details)
🐙 GitHub Analysis(Digital Archaeology)
Our GitHub deaditude score calculates exactly how neglected a repository is based on these factors:
Commit Activity (last 30 days)
- • No commits: +3.0 penalty
- • 1-9 commits: +2.0 penalty
- • 10-29 commits: +1.0 penalty
- • 30-49 commits: -1.0 bonus
- • 50+ commits: -2.0 bonus
PR Age
- • 90-180 days average age: +1.0 penalty
- • 180+ days average age: +2.0 penalty
No one wants to review your PR? That's a five-alarm fire.
Latest Release
- • 60-365 days old: +1.0 penalty
- • 365+ days old: +2.0 penalty
- • No releases: +2.0 penalty
If the last tag was when Gangnam Style was trending, it's not looking good.
Stars (Popularity Bonus)
- • 10,000-50,000 stars: -1.0 bonus
- • 50,000-100,000 stars: -2.0 bonus
- • 100,000+ stars: -3.0 bonus
The "thoughts and prayers" of open source, but they do count for something.
Contributors
- • 5-20 contributors: -1.0 bonus
- • 20-50 contributors: -1.5 bonus
- • 50+ contributors: -2.0 bonus
One maintainer = imminent death. Many contributors = probably alive.
score = 5.0 (baseline) + penalties - bonuses
deaditude = max(0, min(10, score))🧠 Stack Overflow Analysis(Desperation Metrics)
We measure how quickly devs run away screaming when you mention your stack on Stack Overflow:
Answered Ratio (weight: 2.0)
Percentage of questions with answers. If people ask and nobody answers, ghost town confirmed.
Accepted Ratio (weight: 1.0)
Percentage of questions with accepted answers. Low acceptance rate means no one is finding good solutions.
Zero Answer Rate (weight: 1.0)
Percentage of questions with no answers. It's like screaming into the void, but nerdier.
Response Time (weight: 1.5)
Median time to first answer. If it takes days to get a response, that's legacy code territory.
Activity Recency (weight: 1.5)
Days since last activity. Nobody home? Turn off the lights.
Trend Direction (weight: 1.5)
Bonus for increasing activity, penalty for decreasing. Like measuring a patient's pulse.
Bonuses are applied for high question volume (max 2.0 points) and high view counts (max 1.5 points).
score = SUM(metrics_weights) - volume_bonus - view_count_bonus
deaditude = max(0, min(10, score))🎬 YouTube Analysis(Tutorial Desperation)
We analyze YouTube to understand how desperately people are searching for help:
Video Count (30%)
If almost no one is making content about your tech, that's a red flag.
- • < 5 videos: Maximum penalty
- • 5-20 videos: High penalty
- • 20-50 videos: Medium penalty
- • 50-100 videos: Low penalty
- • > 100 videos: No penalty
View Score (30%)
Low view counts mean even desperate people aren't watching.
- • Avg < 100 views: Maximum penalty
- • Avg 100-500 views: High penalty
- • Avg 500-1,000 views: Medium penalty
- • Avg 1,000-5,000 views: Low penalty
- • Avg > 5,000 views: No penalty
Recency (25%)
If the newest video is from the Obama administration, your tech might be in trouble.
- • Newest video > 2 years ago: Maximum penalty
- • Newest video 1-2 years ago: High penalty
- • Newest video 6-12 months ago: Medium penalty
- • Newest video 3-6 months ago: Low penalty
- • Newest video < 3 months ago: No penalty
Trend (15%)
We compare video counts over time to see if creators are abandoning ship.
- • Rapidly declining: Maximum penalty
- • Slowly declining: Medium penalty
- • Stable: No penalty
- • Growing: Bonus
- • Rapid growth: Maximum bonus
score = (videoCount * 0.3) + (viewScore * 0.3) + (recency * 0.25) + (trend * 0.15)
deaditude = score / 10💬 Reddit Analysis(Community Complaints)
We measure despair in Reddit communities to gauge the suffering of your chosen tech stack:
Post Volume (30%)
How many posts are being made about your technology? Ghost town = bad sign.
Post Engagement (15%)
How many upvotes and comments are posts receiving? Low engagement = dying interest.
Sentiment Analysis (20%)
We analyze post titles and comments for positive/negative sentiment. Are people angry?
Community Growth (15%)
Is the subreddit growing, stable, or shrinking? Mass exodus = technology funeral.
Problem-to-Showcase Ratio (10%)
Ratio of help requests to showcase posts. High ratio = everyone's struggling.
Alternatives Mentions (10%)
How often are people discussing alternatives/replacements? If high, everyone's looking for escape routes.
score = (0.3 * volumeScore) + (0.15 * engagementScore) + (0.2 * sentimentScore) +
(0.15 * growthScore) + (0.1 * problemShowcaseScore) + (0.1 * alternativesScore)
deaditude = max(0, min(10, score))🔸 Hacker News Analysis(Silicon Valley Contempt)
We analyze Hacker News to see if your tech passes the Silicon Valley sniff test:
Post Volume (40%)
How frequently is your tech mentioned? Tech that nobody talks about is either boring or dead.
Post Karma (40%)
Average points per post. Low points means even HN trolls can't be bothered to comment.
Recency (20%)
How recent are the posts? If the latest discussion was during the Trump administration, not a good sign.
score = (volumeScore * 0.4) + (karmaScore * 0.4) + (recencyScore * 0.2)
deaditude = max(0, min(10, score))💼 Jobs Analysis(Economic Distress Signals)
We scan job listings to see if your skill set belongs in a museum:
| Job Count | Score (0-10) | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 0-10 | 10 | Your skills are so irrelevant you should consider farming |
| 11-50 | 8 | Basically maintaining legacy systems until retirement |
| 51-200 | 6 | Only employable in government or banking |
| 201-500 | 4 | You'll find a job, but it won't be fun |
| 501-1000 | 2 | Employable and occasionally invited to happy hours |
| 1000+ | 0 | Recruiters won't stop calling, you can afford avocado toast |
score = lookupTable[jobCount]
deaditude = max(0, min(10, score))Note: We also analyze job requirements for "maintenance of legacy systems" as a red flag multiplier.
The Final Diagnosis
Our platform combines all these signals to deliver the brutal truth about your technology choices. The final Deaditude Score™ is a weighted average of individual platform scores, calibrated with our proprietary "I Told You So" algorithm, developed by bitter senior engineers who warned against using these technologies in the first place.
You don't like it ? Change it.
Remember: All technologies die eventually. The question is whether your resumé will be updated before that happens.