Relationship between number of thread views and number of replies?

[Anonymous]

I first started noticing thread views when I saw that there's a kind of pattern in the blag forum. The blogs generally have about 10 views to every 1 reply. Mine doesn't, but lets not talk about that. This ratio doesn't really apply to the rest of the forum though, and it's pretty different for each thread.

The ratio seems to be really dependent on the thread content. The Beijing Olympics food thread is closer to the 10:1 ratio seen in blags, which I'd say is due to the ease of replying but little interest in simply viewing. But the thread on strong emotions has nearly a 30:1 ratio. I'd say that is due to the thread being interesting to read even if the reader has nothing to contribute. And then you have threads like the demotivator thread, which has a whopping 83:1 ratio. This is probably because everyone wants to see what witty demotivator Noah has recently posted, or maybe interested in the latest piece of tasteless garbage by Uber, but doesn't really want to make their own demotivator.

So I'd say that the ratio is really dependent on the specific thread content, but I'll bet that very similar threads have similar ratios. I think it could be fun to try and classify similar threads and then compare their view/reply ratios, or just to try and interpret the meaning behind the ratios for specific threads. That's the purpose of this thread.

Just for the hell of it, I'm going to predict that this thread gets a view/reply ratio of 1:30. Assuming anyone actually replies to it.

[Delilah]

I don't really have anything to add to this but I am posting because I am just so darn happy to be logged in and able to post at the moment.

[mgb]

I first started noticing thread views when I saw that there's a kind of pattern in the blag forum. The blogs generally have about 10 views to every 1 reply. Mine doesn't, but lets not talk about that. This ratio doesn't really apply to the rest of the forum though, and it's pretty different for each thread.

The ratio seems to be really dependent on the thread content. The Beijing Olympics food thread is closer to the 10:1 ratio seen in blags, which I'd say is due to the ease of replying but little interest in simply viewing. But the thread on strong emotions has nearly a 30:1 ratio. I'd say that is due to the thread being interesting to read even if the reader has nothing to contribute. And then you have threads like the demotivator thread, which has a whopping 83:1 ratio. This is probably because everyone wants to see what witty demotivator Noah has recently posted, or maybe interested in the latest piece of tasteless garbage by Uber, but doesn't really want to make their own demotivator.

So I'd say that the ratio is really dependent on the specific thread content, but I'll bet that very similar threads have similar ratios. I think it could be fun to try and classify similar threads and then compare their view/reply ratios, or just to try and interpret the meaning behind the ratios for specific threads. That's the purpose of this thread.

Just for the hell of it, I'm going to predict that this thread gets a view/reply ratio of 1:30. Assuming anyone actually replies to it.

Actually, also interesting is who draws replies and thread views after they've posted.

[joeb0b]

I'm replying because I normally wouldn't and would like to throw the ratio off. :-P
Actually, I was curious about the ratios of the classics threads and many are very high: 30:1, 50:1 even 60:1. I also wonder what the comparison would be to similar threads on non-intp forums. However, I'm too lazy to look.

[Delilah]

And I am replying again because I opened the thread now 2 times since I posted to read the other replies and it seemed wrong not to now.

[benzene]

I was going to reply simply to skew the views/replies of this very thread.

But I noticed in the main index, the Posts/Threads ratio may also be interesting. The higher the figure, the longer running the threads in that area. It's mildly interesting in that most areas have an average posts/thread of 30, but Non-INTP is high at 49 (make your own conclusions), and Science and Health is abnormally low at 18. Perhaps lots of health news gets posted here but without a real context to discuss.

[Anonymous]

Actually, also interesting is who draws replies and thread views after they've posted.

Good point, I forgot about that. At the same time though, after a certain amount of posts, I don't think that the author matters as much anymore. But they could be the basic reason as to why the thread became popular in the first place.


I'm replying because I normally wouldn't and would like to throw the ratio off. :-P
Actually, I was curious about the ratios of the classics threads and many are very high: 30:1, 50:1 even 60:1. I also wonder what the comparison would be to similar threads on non-intp forums. However, I'm too lazy to look.

That is pretty interesting, yeah. I'd be curious to know how much their ratio changed, and in which direction, after the treads were moved to classics. I'd guess that they become wider apart.


And I am replying again because I opened the thread now 2 times since I posted to read the other replies and it seemed wrong not to now.

Yeah, and you threw it off! Now it's closer to the 1:10 than my predicted 1:12. ;)


I was going to reply simply to skew the views/replies of this very thread.

But I noticed in the main index, the Posts/Threads ratio may also be interesting. The higher the figure, the longer running the threads in that area. It's mildly interesting in that most areas have an average posts/thread of 30, but Non-INTP is high at 49 (make your own conclusions), and Science and Health is abnormally low at 18. Perhaps lots of health news gets posted here but without a real context to discuss.

That is pretty neat, yeah. Maybe it's because the non-INTP forum has been a kind of volatile forum in the past. As for Science and Health, I'd guess that those numbers are due to the pretty specific nature of the forum. Not just anyone can really chip in when the discussion is about some kind of medicine or drug.

[WhiteRaven]

The threads that open have higher ratios. The ones that are members only have fewer replies. But I guess that is obvious.

[foodeater]

As threads gain more posts, the rate of incoming posts seems to increase too. But it levels off or decreases after a while, probably due to decreasing interest. It is probably similar to a logistic curve. I'm sure there are a million studies you could do on forum dynamics, if anyone had the interest.