Unless the topic is utterly compelling, I find my interest in following a thread wanes when those little numbers appear next to the title.
Anybody else find this?
Is is perhaps because often by the time it reaches page 2, everything that can be said has been said?
You actually read the threads?
Geez, I just come here to look at the purdy Straight Dope logo at the top of the page, maybe to read a few of the subjects, but to actually read all those words? You gotta be insane.
No, I come here for a good argument. (“No you don’t!”)
Page two is where the fun starts: people mercilessly dissecting each other’s posts line-by-line, verbal gymnastics as they try to accuse each other of nameless sins without invoking moderator intervention or Godwin’s Law, other people making vain soothing noises as they try to stay on topic, yet others deciding to throw in the towel and start hijacks about Wimbledon… all human life is here, and it starts on page two.
Or Occam’s Razor… you KNOW it’s getting hot when Occam’s Razor is invoked.
Only if I haven’t been a part of the thread from its beginning. If I’m a newcomer to the thread I feel that I have to read every post in that thread before adding my own comments just to make sure I’m not repeating something that has already been said or worse, restating a point that has already been shot down. Sometimes if I spot a thread that I’m interested in but its already several pages long I’ll just skim it and not post to it because I haven’t the time to read every single post in it.
And hotter still when specific reference is made to the IPU.
I lose interest quickly. Unless it’s a really, really intriguing topic, if I can’t bore everyone with my 2 cents on the first page of the thread, I move on. Like the OPer said, more often than not everthing that needs to be said has been said by page 2.
I lose interest quickly. Unless it’s a really, really intriguing topic, if I can’t bore everyone with my 2 cents on the first page of the thread, I move on. Like the OPer said, more often than not everthing that needs to be said has been said by page 2.
It’s not that I lose interest in the thread, I just generally lose interest in replying. If it looks promising, I’ll read it later when I’m offline… but unless I really want to, the thought of replying doesn’t even occur to me.
I totally agree with LDG. I rarely reply to a thread that already has a ton of them. What’s the use?
I see a thread that has two or more pages and I can’t help but feel that someone else has posted what I was going to. I may look to see, I may not. Depends if I’m feeling lazy.
yes very much so. Usally what I wanted to say has been said. Sometimes I will reply to the OP only and say that is what I’m doing.
I have to admit, if I see a thread that says “38255230821 replies,” I tend to pass over it. I hate reading through pages and pages of posts. I love when I hop on a post in the beginning, before it swells. It’s just not really worth my effort otherwise. Not anyone particularly notices my posts or my existence in the first place, so why bury myself further?
[sup][sub] I’m having a rough day. I think I’ll go eat some worms. [/sub] [/sup]
Hell, I lose interest when it’s halfway down the first page.
I’ll go against the norm, and admit I don’t usually read a thread unless it has more than one page. Especially in Great Debates. Because that usually means it’s a good enough topic to get a lot of responses, and will provide me with some reading enjoyment for awhile. I hate reading good threads with only a couple posts. Cause then it leaves you wanting more, especially if they’re really good.
-Mod
I lose interest on the first page of a porno mag.
I’ll expand on Modian’s answer and say it depends on the forum.
In Great Debates, it doesn’t even begin to get interesting until page 2. Unless it’s a totally unique question (which rarely happens), page 1 is usually just hashing out the ground rules and definitions and going back through all the same old sound-bite responses that get trotted out whenever that topic is raised. Page 2 is where we get to the meat.
IMHO, on the other hand, gets old fast. Since those are usually polls or requests for nominations to a category, a never-ending list makes my eyes glaze fast.
MPSIMS also gets old. By page 2, it’s generally either a sob party, a hug marathon, or a flirting fest, or all three. There are rare exceptions, like the “funny things during sex” thread, that make it worthwhile to keep one’s eyes on the threads that expand quickly.
The BBQ Pit is an either-or forum. When those threads get to page 2, it’s because it’s either an extraordinarily entertaining flame war, or an extraordinarily boring flame war. Not a lot of middle ground.
General Questions is the real mixed bag. Sometimes, the threads get long because they’re delving into minutiae far beyond the scope of the original question, and I tune out. I appreciate that we’ve got experts who really enjoy bandying those kinds of details back and forth – it’s one of the things that makes the SDMB so unique – but I don’t need to be a part of it. On the other hand, sometimes those detailed discussions are incredibly fascinating and illuminating.
So, in summary, my not-very-helpful answer is, “it depends.” 
I’m with Blackclaw. If a thread is really rolling along and I missed out on the first page of it, then it’s too, I dunno, daunting, discouraging, to read it all midstream. All the funny stuff has been said, and I figure no one’s reading.
The exceptions are when the thread title seems interesting and it appears that people are being inspired. Like “Your Most Seinfeldian Breakup,” which was still interesting 3 pages later.
But then I’m someone who can’t bear to see a really good movie after everyone else on the planet has seen it. For reasons I can’t quite pinpoint, I like being among the first people to have seen a blockbuster. It’d be a pride thing if I actually talked to anyone about my movie choices and opinions, but I rarely do. So no explanation.
Page two? Hell, I lost interested in this thread before it finished loading!
Really? I usually don’t bother once it gets past 14756802429.
In this thread, we pretty much started off like that from the beginning.