The Shaman
First Post
A little something I've noticed on bulletin boards that track posts and views - there seems to be a consistent ratio of somewhere around 10 views: 1 reply.
If you look up and down the columns on most of the boards, I think you'll see that this holds true in most forums. It's true on half-a-dozen different VBBs that I watch, gaming related or otherwise. Sometimes it's 9:1, others it's 11:1, but they all seem to average out to around 10:1
What's funny are the exceptions. For example, the Counting Posts thread is more like 6:1 - most people who view the thread are posters, padding their numbers in all likelihood.
The ENWorld Women thread on the other hand has a views-to-posts ratio of more than 20:1 - lots of guys curious about what the womenfolk are up to, perhaps?
I've found that this ratio is also a fairly reliable predictor of threads that are of general interest: a thread with only two or three replies but 50 or 60 views (say 25:1 or 30:1) might be a specific question answered quickly by one of the initial respondents. On the other hand, a thread with 40 replies but only 200 views (5:1) is probably banter between just two or three posters on a topic near and dear to their hearts and minds. That 10:1 ratio is a good shorthand for picking out ineresting threads.
The Shaman: putting the "anal" back in "banal"... :\
If you look up and down the columns on most of the boards, I think you'll see that this holds true in most forums. It's true on half-a-dozen different VBBs that I watch, gaming related or otherwise. Sometimes it's 9:1, others it's 11:1, but they all seem to average out to around 10:1
What's funny are the exceptions. For example, the Counting Posts thread is more like 6:1 - most people who view the thread are posters, padding their numbers in all likelihood.
The ENWorld Women thread on the other hand has a views-to-posts ratio of more than 20:1 - lots of guys curious about what the womenfolk are up to, perhaps?
I've found that this ratio is also a fairly reliable predictor of threads that are of general interest: a thread with only two or three replies but 50 or 60 views (say 25:1 or 30:1) might be a specific question answered quickly by one of the initial respondents. On the other hand, a thread with 40 replies but only 200 views (5:1) is probably banter between just two or three posters on a topic near and dear to their hearts and minds. That 10:1 ratio is a good shorthand for picking out ineresting threads.
The Shaman: putting the "anal" back in "banal"... :\
