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...