What Makes an A2K Thread Successful? With a Bow to Boomerang

You know, Phoenix. Some time back, I posted a thread that included suggestions to A2K'ers along with one which was called "Ways to Kill a Thread." I haven't changed my philosophy one bit, as I feel that what we write here is equivalent to how we discuss things in real life.

I hope you get a lot of responses to this one, my friend. As for me, I need to do stuff right now.

My absence ? <see I am doing it again>

No, au contraire, my prince!
Your presence and my absence, maybe...

Well, this one's dead. Can't believe you did this to Phoenix's thread, bigdice.

A pox on the lot of you! :wink:

I think you get out of a thread what you put into it. In the beginning you have to help move the conversation along... ask questions, post replies... that sort of stuff. If you quit posting there, everyone will quit posting there.


...of course it helps if it is about sex.

Now, for instance, I really thought that I had a winner in this one. It was decently worded, and contained a subject that I believed was of interest to just about most of the A2Kers.

I had this whole spiel that I was going to write about what I thought made a successful thread, but it shows to go ya, whatthehell do I know?

>> walks into thread... places curse<<




THAT is what kills a thread.. Me... myself... and I
All 3 of us.. kill a thread on site.

MUAAHAHAHAH!!

I think many people are drawn to a thread simply by the author of that thread. I've noticed that sometimes a meaningless thread is started by a popular member and people will jump on that thread with equally meaningless responses for no other reason, it seems, than to respond to the popular person. It's a little jr. high schoolish but it also seems to be human nature for some.

<returns bow>

I think it is important for a post to actually ask for some kind of response: an answer, an opinion, a suggestion, a contribution, something!. Sometimes a poster will just dangle something in front of you without a clear direction, that really doesn't seem to spark discussion. I always assume they posted it to pass along information or for my reading pleasure.

Overuse of the quote button is a big thread killer, to me, especially when the quote isn't edited down to the essential part being addressed. It seems to stop the conversational flow of the posts when the quote button is used instead of saying something like "jpin... do you really think it helps if it is about sex?"

I agree that whoever starts the topic has a responsiblity to move the conversation along, especially in the beginning.

<purposefully not editing down quote to help emphasize boomers point>

Yeah... sex threads are a dime a dozen but they explode for pages and pages in a few hours... then they get boring and die. Then a new one pops up and it starts all over again. Hey... sex sells.

Sunspots.

Sunspots are responsible for all manner of earthly phenomena.

Noddy =



I think it has alot to do with the topic being ' mold-able'.
Basically an open ended topic that can easily be directed to ... lets say.... SEX.

jpinMilwaukee- One might draw that conclusion not only about sex threads, but sex in general!

I am really getting baaad. <as I smack myself on thw wrist>

I think there are just too too many variables to give any kind of general answer. Even what makes a given thread valuable is too subjective/ varied. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a deep, fact-filled discussion complete with lots of long quotes from various sources. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a really silly, riffy, digressionary thread. Some of my favorites are in the silly/ riffy mode. And what can be very valuable for a few can be of little interest to others -- a specific question that is asked and which garners a really useful response. That thread may have only four posts -- a question, a perfect answer, a thank-you from the asker, and a you're-welcome from the answerer -- and be an incredibly valuable thread.

Even if I went the way of talking about things that kill a thread, that's not always true -- if someone is rude, for example, sometimes other people band together to react to the rude person in interesting ways. It gets boring if everyone agrees all the time.

So it depends on who is online, (I've found perfectly fantastic threads that just happened to got a last response at 4:00 AM my time or something and I miss unless I do deep digging), the moods of those who are online (silly/ riffy? deep/ factual? etc.), and how all of that intersects with the subject at hand and how it's presented.

So, sunspots is as good of an answer as any IMO. :-)

I just checked. Of the 45 threads I started, they've gotten between1 and 148 pages of responses. It seems the ones that get hit the most are the one's with the compelling subject matter. The quit smoking thread is the biggest, probably because so many people identify with it... plus it has the word Craven in the title... maybe that's the lock!

It can't be about being interesting... cause life on Mars is certainly more interesting than a bunch of folks whining about quitting smoking, and that thread only got a couple hits. <shrugs>

I think Noddy's answer is probably the most logical. Either that or weather balloons.