The 10:1 ratio
 

There is a small trend I have noticed. And it seems to hold true on most boards (and admittedly, the only boards that I have regular experience with are for the most part Disney related: MP, MA, the old Fab, and here).

Most threads tend to have a views to posts ratio of about 10:1. Some examples of the moment (the first four threads listed in the Lounge at the time of this post):

• Riding crop costumes go bye bye: 209 posts, 2,002 views
• Disney admits liability in wrongful death lawsuit: 8 posts, 75 views
• Planning for Disneyland in January: 37 posts, 385 views
• Hidden Elvis' @ Disneyland: 13 posts, 145 views

It is obviously far from an absolute truism (a simple look would easily disprove my theory). However, there is a curious propensity in that direction.

Completely useless bit of information, just an observation that I have often been amused by.

I myself made sure to view this thread 9 times before I posted.

I'm gonna have to run a Snopes on this.;)

damn, it sure is good to have your clever posts here again.

(now i shall read my own post several times before moving on)

It makes sense. The 80/20 rules (in general form) pops up in a lot of places. For example, it was a handy ruleof thumb back in my academic research days that 20% of academic papers accounted for 80% of academic cites.

Similarly, in looking at the various useage statistics over the years for message boards, I think it has roughly followed that about 5% of active users account for about 85% of all posts. Similarly is is very close to accuratethat about 20% of the people who post on MousePadin a given day account for more than 80% of all the posts that day. Since all the people not posting are presumably still reading, the 10:1 ratio you generally see isn't surprising to me.

I'd have thought it might be a little lower on LoT since it is a smaller board more socially connected.

I often view threads that I post to more than once. So I post once, then view the thread as others post to it, but I may not post again. So maybe I post once, but view it nine more times.

I always make a point to view threads to see if anybody is saying anything bad about me. It's my insecurity.

I always check to see if anybody's posting anything bad about KevyBaby, saves me the time from posting it myself ;)

More like wishful thinking.;):p

Admit the truth- you're just worried we're dissing Joyce!

The Cult of Joyce...

Do we all have to wear 'Fro's and polyester?

You will worship at the alter of Joyce:

see how flattering a riding crop is to an ensemble?

I'm learning just how fast I can spin the scrool wheel on my mouse whenever I see that nasty Joyce pic.

Pretty damn fast, when I have such great motivation! ;)

Damn, and I thought I was the only one geeky enough to look at stuff like that. On some of the "other" sites I visit that get gobs of useless posts I look at that ratio as a way to spot posts that might be worth reading. However if the ratio is too high then I suspect it's one of those "post your favorite tree species" type of posts that everyone responds to..

Thank the maker for this site where you can pretty much keep up with everything posted and rarely see rampant juvenile posts about inane topics like "favorite ice cream flavors".

I think this accounts for more viewings than we'd think. There are some threads that I love checking and barely post in.

Hmm... that sounds like a good thread topic...

The larch.


The....larch.

Dreyer's no-sugar-added Triple Chocolate.

Why doesn't anyone make a sugar free pumpkin ice cream?