I once tried to settle this question once and for all, but the mods did not approve.
Well, we’re past the 20-post point. Either is gets shuttered now, or at about 668 posts.
You had typos, Hal. You know. Just…letting you know.
ahem
Whoops. Ok, thanks for the heads-up.
Most of my threads died before they really had a chance to live. Tragic.
Stillborn threads. Something to think about. How to’s, etc.
There was at least one thread not so long ago that approached the theme of “what thread title is most likely to be avoided?” It might be worth another such thread to see if we can come up with some Stillborns.
So, I see this thread is still kickin’. Kickin’ it is…yup…
…definitely kickin’.
A quick search reveals I’ve got five stillborns to my credit.
155 “stillborns” last month alone, remember. Here is a sampling of the thread titles :
the perils of online dating
Ozzfest 2006
We need a Kruschev, not a belly kisser!
Civil War Regiment Numbering
Teach me to whistle loudly with my fingers
Simulating a Ph meter probe
Flash Audio Players?
Immortal Ovaries
origin of Pagodas?
Latin experts - translation?
Personal Stories from the Somme
Calling All Artistic Types
If there’s a pattern to these, I can’t discern it.
I just did the enthralling calculations, and discovered I’ve killed 6.3% of all threads I’ve posted in.
I did a search for every post I’ve ever made on the SDMB. The search returned a list of each thread I’ve ever posted in, much the same to the list of threads you see when you first log into the board. I just looked down the list, which says who posted to the thread last, and looked for my name.
Took about 20 minutes to count them all, I guess.
I’m pretty high up. Don’t consider myself #1. I’m more like the guy who delivers the first crippling blow to a thread before some drive-by poster finishes it off.
Likewise, if anyone kept an objective count of threads that were lively for a few days and then fell completely dead, I’d probably at least make the podium.
When this thread dies, it will rise from the dead and eat brains.
We really need a zombie emoticon.
What would be really sad is a thread that didn’t even get any views. I can’t imagine that! I have two stillborns, one with 31 views and one with 34. Pretty sad!!
Yes, a stillborn with views is better than a stillborn without views. What I wonder about is stillborns with 100 or more views. How could that many people look in in a thread and not be moved to comment?
Need I say more? Moved to comment?
The only movements that one gathered were due to gutteral clenching.
The way to get to the Unviewed Stillborn would be to devise a thread title that would have the feature of being too dull or too insipid for people to want even to look at the OP. That would be some right clever titling, I suggest.
Potential candidates:
My grandmother’s lockjaw finally did her in
Pictures of my lawn growing
Clever names for my roach
Was Al Capp really the Anti-Christ?
Let’s see who can hold their breath the longest…
Other candidates?
If anyone cares to actually start this thread, I just clocked in at 24 seconds (closed mouth, pinched nose).
Earthling did some stats here for 2003/2004. Post 17 has a list of threadkillers for that time period.
You might be looking at this wrong. Killing threads with one sixth of your posts is an impressive feat but for shear volume you would think Guin or **Lib ** has probably ended the most. If you want to go with average number of final posts per week, it would have to be a user like **LOUNE, Guin, Marley23, Silenus, Oakminster ** or myself who have very high post per day counts. (Sorry for those I left off).
Jim