Question: I've noticed on a couple of freelancing sites (especially Elance) where the majority projects get allocated either to yourself (if you're lucky), or to another (lucky them) or they get cancelled (unlucky for everyone).

However, there are quite a few projects that just seem to "hang" there, not being allocated to anyone. Which could be for a number of reasons. 

Would it be safe to assume that any project after a month after it's initial announcement is unlikely to do anything than just sit and stagnate, in a state of limbo (incorrectly flagged as "hiring open" or "selecting candidate"?

Are there any other freelancers that keep tabs on these sort of statistics?

Answer: 
Being a client on those services give you a chance to open the project even if you are not sure that you need someone to work on it. So those are the ones that are left hanging because clients are not sure what to do, could not find anyone to match their budget, or simply found contractor via another source and were too lazy to close it. 

oDesk took a twist and started to treat clients the same as contractors dividing them to good or bad. For example, my job award ration on odesk is 50%, which is IMHO pretty good, but they still emailed me telling me that I should open a project only if I plan to actually hire someone. Otherwise they will close my account. So they are doing their best as of recently to shut down clients like those (or like me) who spend bids and time of other contractors.
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> Would it be safe to assume that any project after a month after it's initial announcement is unlikely to do anything than just sit and stagnate, in a state of limbo (incorrectly flagged as "hiring open" or "selecting candidate"?
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**Yes.** I've been using Elance for over a year, and I've observed (from reviewing the history of all jobs that I've bidded on) that **over 90% of posted contracts never make a hire.** Many of the contracts sit in the "selecting candidate" phase for eternity after they are abandoned by the client. This will vary depending on the type of work the contract is for, but don't expect a stagnating contract to ever get started.