Threads with Jet Engines!
What has happened to the forum in the last couple of days? During the day, fresh new posts (top) seem to be cycled through and end up last (bottom) of Page 1 in just four hours! Unbelievable! Has 100,000 posting people joined the forum out of the blue?
A westbound Metrolink commuter train on UP (LA&SL) tracks passes Ontario International Airport, Ontario, CA. A FedEx jet is on the background left.
If no one responds, and if the posts to several other discussions come at the rate of about one every ten minutes, yewbetchca, any one thread can find itself at the bottom of page 2 inside of five or so hours. See it quite often, particularly on the Model Railroader’s General Discussion forum. I have seen activity at that level here numerous times.
Crandell
It’s more because of many new threads being started then displace the older ones. Review Pages 1 and 2 and note how many are recent ones, often by the same 2 or 3 posters . . .
And think… by posting this question you just pushed another thread off the main page. And me responding will keep it on top.
Things that make you go hmmm…
I was halfway expecting a thread about the UP turbines![(-D]
Consider this from someone who tends to over-analyze things:
*There are 20 threads per page.
*Three of those threads, (15% of the threads) are pinned at the top by Kalmbach
*Six of those threads( 30% of the threads) are sort of serial / ongoing threads, that have, on average, 34 pages, 494 replies and and 31,000 (!) views
*That leaves 11 threads per page competing with all the others for front page coverage.
I know that some people get frustrated when a thread that interests them keeps falling off the front page. To me, that means there must be 10 threads that are receiving more attention. The fact that there is a lot of activity seems like a healthy trend to me. I post to a couple of forums that I check about once a week to see if anything has changed. The best way to keep a thread that interests you alive is to ad to it. Ask questions.
From the moderator’s viewpoint, I think we’re seeing a fair amount of new members come on board. the model railroader’s forum is seeing a big influx of new threads and posts.
Conclussion: It’s all good, and I just brought this thread back to the top. [:-,]
A thread needs some dwell time on the front page to gain enough momentum to stay there. Once it falls off the front page, it dies because relatively few people look at anything but the first page. I think it is a major flaw with the forum structure.
Having a lot of activity is a good thing, but having half the threads die off before the would-be interested people see them is dysfunctional.
Back before the last two software remodeling events, the front page contained many more threads than it does today.
But those ten threads on page one are not really competing on merrit of the interest they attract. They are competing on the chance of certain people seeing them on a certain day. Members that only check the forum every few days will miss threads that might have attracted enough of their interest to post something.
Perhaps, but someone checking every few days that is unwilling to look beyond page one can’t be considered much more than a casual reader. Then it gets somewhat subjective about what a good thread is. The only logical way I can see gauge that, is to have the threads with the newest posts come automatically to the top.
At one time, if you edited one of your posts, it automatically moved the thread to the top of page one. A few folks who wanted their favorite thread to be at the top of the page would continually edit their posts.[:-,]
I understand what you are saying about casual readers missing threads, but nevertheless, threads are falling off the front page and dying prematurely. And it is not because of the relative merit or how interesting the thread is. That does matter, but what I am talking is a separate issue related only to forum format.
I have watched threads go to page two, and the view count drops to almost nothing and stays that way. Then make a post and bring it back to page one, and it gets viewed 150 times inside of 12 hours.
Much ado about very little.
This is the nature of ALL internet forums, no matter the subject.
Murphy, you can have your big blows after they lash jet engines on top of an RDC first…
There were lots of snowbound folks in DC and up into New England today with time on their hands. Metro was running fine and the cars were practically empty so I actually got to sit, but MARC Brunswick and Camden lines were shut down and Penn line was on reduced schedule. VRE was adversely affected also. What’s better to do on an unexpected day off than jumping into a forum?
I think I’ll revive my switch heater thread from a couple weeks ago with another question about something I saw on CSX this morning. It’ll probably be on page 15 by now.
Rix-battle the weather and get to a job I love-Flix
A local forum I’m on has 30 threads listed on the first page. Granted, it’s a relatively small audience, but once a thread hits around 15 or so, it’ll usually slowly drift down to oblivion.
On the other hand, another forum occasionally sees threads several years old resurrected. Depending on the topic, sometimes they’re so old that they’re new.
Folks interested in a thread will keep it alive.
My fav photo forum has 50 threads on a page (Fred Miranda). Kalmbach uses three lines per thread. You could space that out sideways but it would interfere with all the annoying advertising. And lets face it Kalmbach is all about selling stuff and if they could split Trains into another magazine I’m sure they would.
John
john_edwards said:
And lets face it Kalmbach is all about selling stuff and if they could split Trains into another magazine I’m sure they would.
John
John;
Kalmbach hosts this Forum as a non-subscription service to interested parties and subscribers.
Don’t forget rule #1. “The guy that owns the ball makes the rules”[:-,]
an applicable rule could be co-opted from the Marines.
Now this thread REALLY has a jet engine. This picture was taken on a rare tour of the TTCI Testing Facility. This engine was the test bed for jet technology. It failed.
I thought Wile E. Coyote pretty much disproved that theory.
It’d probably work better if it wasn’t trying to push a freight train as it hauled passengers…
But Wile’s hope springs eternal and he has a open account at Acme!