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noWizardme
Gondolin
Dec 31 2024, 12:48pm
Post #1 of 11
(7232 views)
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most-replied-to RR posts, an analysis
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I decided to look at the 75 most-replied to posts in the Reading Room and see when those discussions had taken place. These posts had got between 380 and 84 replies. They dated from this year, back to 2007.
The headline conclusions:
- 2013 was the standout year for long conversations (23 conversations from 2013 were in the top 75, including the two conversations that had the most replies of all - 380 and 343).
- The years 2013- 2017 were all in the top 10 years for generating long conversations. I expect this is because those years featured several readthroughs, notably the Sil,in 2013 and LOTR, 2014- 16.
- The year 2009 was also good (8 of the top 75 conversations, putting it in third place). But 2010 had only 4 conversationsin the top 75 sample and 2008 only 1.
- Pleasing to see that this year, 2024 was in 9th place (3 top-75 discussions) , and 2023 was in 11th (2 top-75 discussions).
Caveats: Only a fool would think that the number of a replies a post gets is the same thing as its quality, worth or interest. Some excellent posts get few replies - though perhaps they would get oodles of 'likes' if we had a 'like' button. Some discussions that run and run are about something that was said in an initial reply, or a tangent it all gets into (so not directly abotu what was said in th OP). A couple of posts got a lot of replies because the OP was being roundly disagreed with (or in one case because he was unable to see/accept that his logic was circular, despite a tag-team effort to explain this). Only one post had been locked. I suspect that discussions that degenerate into fights, name-calling or childish arguing or repetition don't get to enough replies to make it into this sample. Or they get their diseased bits pruned by the admins, thus reducing the number of replies.
There are many other caveats about using number of replies as a metric: - I know! Forum members are welcome to do better studies for themselves if they want! 
But I do think it's probably true that if a discussion lasts for 85 exchanges (let alone 380!) then probably something of interest must have happened. So the number of replies it is of some interest as a crude proxy for how the conversation went. And from there, a rough guide to participation in the RR over time.
Of figures that are available just by viewing the site it beats 'number of views' for several reasons. - Robots: I don't know whether 'views' excludes robotic traffic. That's something which is difficult to do comprehensively, and there may have been no need even to try to do it for this site. Robots (search engine ones, spam ones, various scrapers etc.) can amount to a lot of traffic. Both ABCe and COUNTER (website auditing standards) insist you exclude robots for that reason.
- A second problem is that 'number of views' would favour older posts - I suspect that older posts keep on getting views (people arriving from a search engine result, for example), but in my experience it's unusual for an old conversation to get further replies. It's usually all over after a week or two.
- Finally a lot of views could be be people who just happend past but didn't find the post very interesting (or didn't eeven mean to end up here). By contrast, someone who replies is sufficiently invested to bother to do that.
The data:
By Year
2007; 2
2008; 1
2009; 8
2010; 4
2011; 1
2012; 0
2013; 23
2014; 10
2015; 7
2016; 3
2017; 6
2018; 0
2019; 3
2020; 1
2021; 1
2022; 0
2023; 2
2024; 3
And viewed the other way around (years listed by the number of most-replied-to threads):
#threads year
23; 2013
10; 2014
8; 2009
7; 2015
6; 2017
4; 2010
3; 2016
3; 2019
3; 2024
2; 2007
2; 2023
1; 2008
1; 2011
1; 2020
1; 2021
0; 2012
0; 2018
0; 2022
Posts by number of replies:
rank replies
1 380
2 343
3 322
4 226
5 186
6 183
7 182
8 177
9 173
10 160
11 160
12 159
13 156
14 154
15 152
16 148
17 144
18 141
19 140
20 134
21 132
22 132
23 129
24 128
25 128
26 126
27 126
28 125
29 124
30 124
31 119
32 118
33 118
34 116
35 116
36 113
37 110
38 109
39 108
40 108
41 107
42 107
43 106
44 105
45 103
46 102
47 101
48 100
49 100
50 99
51 98
52 97
53 97
54 97
55 96
56 96
57 95
58 93
59 93
60 93
61 92
62 92
63 91
64 91
65 90
66 90
67 89
68 89
69 88
70 87
71 86
72 85
73 85
74 85
75 84
Methodolgy:
- On the site, I sorted the reading room posts by number of replies (from largest to smallest). I took the first five pages, which gives the 75 most replied-to posts
- I Copy-pasted into a spreadsheet
- I Created a new coloum and type the year of each post (the timestamp was too detailed for excel to understand)
- I could then analyse by year vs. number of replies.
~~~~~~
"I am not made for querulous pests." Frodo 'Spooner' Baggins.
(This post was edited by noWizardme on Dec 31 2024, 12:56pm)
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Ethel Duath
Gondolin
Dec 31 2024, 4:11pm
Post #2 of 11
(7178 views)
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I'm going to take some time and look this over.
I'm thinking some of the variation may be due to people not on the boards anymore, plus new folks.
But the subject matter should be the biggest clue.
Thank you!
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noWizardme
Gondolin
Dec 31 2024, 4:31pm
Post #3 of 11
(7200 views)
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The longest conversations were...(first 10 with links)
[In reply to]
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- 380 replies: Silmarilion Discussion: Chapter 16 -- "Of Maeglin" by Maciliel, 2013
- 343 replies Silmarillion Discussion, Chapter 19: Of Beren and Luthien: Love, etc. by CuriousG, 2013
- 322 replies LOTR Unofficial Read Through - The Two Towers by Eruonen, 2017
- 226 replies The Fellowship of the Ring Discussion, Chapter Two: The Shadow of the Past by Kim, 2014
- 186 replies 'The Fellowship of the Ring' Discussion, Chapter One: A Long-Expected Party by Rembrethil, 2014
- 183 replies The Return of the King - Unofficial read through by Eruonen, 2017
- 182 replies The Numenorean Kingdoms, part XI - bridge-film material? by sador, 2009
- 177 replies Reading Room Culture by Dreamdeer, 2009
- 173 replies Return of the King Part II - the unofficial read through - Book VI onward by Eruonen, 2017
- 160 replies The Tale of Years (Appendix B): Part I – The 2nd Age, 1 -1600 by Morthoron, 2009
- 160 replies Fellowship - Rookie Reader Review by Cygnus 2019
- 159 replies need help filling in some blanks please (First Age, Elros, Elrond, Gil-galad, etc.) by erynion 2013
- 156 replies Do Elves have free will? by visualweasel 2009
- 154 replies **Unfinished Tales Discussion - Disaster of the Gladden Fields by noWizardme 2014
- 152 replies Fellowship of The Ring - unofficial, unsanctioned, unsolicited read through by Eruonen 2017
- 148 replies It's Tolkien Reading Day! Post your ABCs of Tolkien here. by N.E. Brigand 2010
- 144 replies ****LOTR Read through Book V.4 - The Siege of Gondor**** by noWizardme 2016
- 141 replies Volunteers for next few Silmarillion chapters? by CuriousG 2013
- 140 replies Fellowship of The Ring - unofficial read through Part II by Eruonen 2017
- 134 replies **CoH Discussion** I. The Childhood of Túrin: 1. Ancestry by squire 2007
- 132 replies Silmarillion Chapter 13: Of the Return of the Noldor by Brethil 2013
- 132 replies LOTR Trivia II by Eruonen 2017
- 129 replies Some confusing (to me) issues about the Power(s) of the Ring and Isildur by Brethil 2013
- 128 replies Book I, Chapter 11, “A Knife in the Dark”: Are Black Riders Wimps? by Curious 2010
- 128 replies New Reading Discussion anytime soon? by Nuradar 2013
- 126 replies The Two Towers Read Through-Chapter 4 Treebeard. by Mikah 2015
- 126 replies An Excellent Article Against The Tolkien Society's Destructive Attempts by Alienmaster 2021
- 125 replies Tolkien at UVM by Istar Indigo 2009
- 124 replies Has anyone noticed the thread count? by CuriousG 2013
- 124 replies Unfinished Tales Discussion: The History of Celeborn and Galadriel by Mikah 2014
I've made a .csv file of the data I used, and attached it for the use of anyone who wants to do any further analysis.
~~~~~~
"I am not made for querulous pests." Frodo 'Spooner' Baggins.
(This post was edited by noWizardme on Dec 31 2024, 4:38pm)
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Attachments:
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most replied to TORN posts as of 20241231.csv
(10.3 KB)
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noWizardme
Gondolin
Dec 31 2024, 6:08pm
Post #4 of 11
(7172 views)
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I cross-posted a list of the longest conversations
[In reply to]
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I did 1-10 with permalinks, but tired of adding those for 11-30. But it shouldn't be hard to search any post from its exact title, if anyone wishes.
I can see that mostly these are threads in schedulled readthroughs. This makes sense: people are expecting the next bit and may be more eager to log on and to reply.
That can start a virtuous circle.
Or --see for example Dreamdeer in the 8th conversation, from 2009 -- maybe it can lead to complaints that all that happens is a certain style of conversation, led by much the same group of people. Perhaps this lends itself to natural cycles - people take the intitative and get things going; a group is percieved to be in charge and is increasingly left to run things; the group breaks up or the ideas run out of steam and there is quiet for a bit before something else happens.
That would lead to a cycle.
Interesting to see that informal readthroughs of LOTR by Eruonen and by Cygnus also led to long conversations. They just posted thoughts in a fairly regular fashion as they read through LOTR, and they invited (and got) contributions back.
The median number of top-75 conversations per year is 2.5 for the period 2007-2024. So that means 2023 and 2024 have been about average. That I think is an achievement: 2020 - 2022 were quiet as regards these long conversations (1 or 0 threads making the top 75). So just possibly the cycle swings up again (though with such small numbers it is hard to tell).
The long conversations of the past 2 years have been all part of the scheduled characters or places discussions, so thanks once again to those who keep those running!:Heree are those long conversations 2023-4:
- 96 replies ***Characters of LOTR - Boromir 1/5: introduction in Rivendell & behaviour at Council by noWizardme 2023
- 92 replies *** Shire Discussion: Bilbo's Shire, Frodo's Shire by oliphaunt 2024
- 85 replies ***Faramir Character Study 1: Faramir through the eyes of Frodo and Sam by CuriousG 2023
And (to repeat) - the length of the discussion is not a general-purpose indicator of whether someone's post was good, or even how much was going on in the RR at that time. Excellent posts may have had few or even no replies, or excellent conversations may have been short! And on occasion someone has posted a link to something they've written somewhere else and then seemed surprised to get a reply to it, seeking to discuss their work. Discuss things on a discussion board? Imagine!
~~~~~~
"I am not made for querulous pests." Frodo 'Spooner' Baggins.
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Eldy
Dor-Lomin
Jan 2 2025, 6:03am
Post #5 of 11
(7062 views)
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Really interesting stuff, noWiz!
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I'm afraid I can't offer much in the way of meaningful commentary, but I didn't want to leave this thread without saying anything since I enjoyed reading your analysis. :) It makes sense how the scheduled discussions are so strongly represented on your list. I've never been great about keeping up with scheduled threads (deadlines of any sort almost invariably end up as a source of stress for me LOL) but it's really heartening to see you guys still trucking along in the latter days of traditional message boards. :)
(This post was edited by Eldy on Jan 2 2025, 6:06am)
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Voronwë_the_Faithful
Doriath
Jan 5 2025, 4:56pm
Post #6 of 11
(6918 views)
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Thank you for this fascinating analysis; I have some sense of the time and effort that went into it, and I found it very interesting.
In the realm of "wishes that won't come true" I would love to see a comparison of this data with the "old" Reading Room, but I don't think that information exists. Or if it does, I don't have access to it.
'But very bright were the stars upon the margin of the world, when at times the clouds about the West were drawn aside.'
The Hall of Fire
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CuriousG
Gondolin
Feb 3 2025, 8:05pm
Post #7 of 11
(6182 views)
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Echoing everything Eldy said--thanks for the New Year's gift, Wiz //
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Felagund
Mithlond
Feb 3 2025, 8:09pm
Post #8 of 11
(6184 views)
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G'day noWiz, have been meaning to say for ages how interesting I found your number crunching.
I agree, logging the number of replies is the least imperfect way of logging level of engagement - with all the caveats that you give. It indirectly raises, as you also say, the 'like' button issue that has come up elsewhere, in feedback on the 'Future of the Boards' question, for example.
The correlation you observed between high engagement and the 'readthrough' years is also interesting. I remember that some of the LotR character studies running through 2023 and 2024 were bigguns in terms of replies (I'm thinking Faramir, Éowyn, Denethor etc) but it just goes to show that the data sometimes tells a different story!
Welcome to the Mordorfone network, where we put the 'hai' back into Uruk
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cats16
Gondolin
Mar 6 2025, 9:22pm
Post #9 of 11
(4929 views)
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I've been absent from the RR for far too long, but wanted to pop in to say this is really cool and I appreciate you doing this work. I remember those readthroughs in the mid-2010s well!
Join us every weekend in the Hobbit movie forum for this week's CHOW (Chapter of the Week) discussion!
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Ethel Duath
Gondolin
Mar 7 2025, 10:17pm
Post #11 of 11
(4852 views)
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do finish last, or never finish at all! 
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