# Post count by forum---possible?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [October 14, 2000, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936 "2000-10-14T22:49:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2000, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/1 "2000-10-14T22:49:39Z")
Is there a way I can count my posts by forum? I mean, how many times have I posted in MPSIMS/GD/GQ/IMHO vs how many times in the Pit?
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### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2000, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/2 "2000-10-14T23:21:15Z")
Short of doing a search by forum and hand counting? I have no clue.
Why does it matter?
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Still judging by quality and not quantity.
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### Author:  [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2000, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/3 "2000-10-14T23:24:29Z")
Yah, you can just search by forum. But, you don’t have to handcount, atleast I think you don’t. After the search is done, above your search results it will say “1 to 20 of 124” Or whatever the numbers are. So 124 would be the amount of posts in a certain forum.
pat “Who agrees with TubaDiva, I mean, I don’t have many posts do I?”
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### Author:  [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2000, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/4 "2000-10-15T01:48:07Z")
I totalled up my posts by forum and it came to about 1,257. My post count shows something like 1600+. The missing posts must’ve come when the servers were switched or something.
Not that the count itself matters. I was just trying to get an accurate ratio.
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### Author:  [@Pyrex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyrex)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2000, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/5 "2000-10-15T02:17:00Z")
I think you’re confusing two different counts.
You’ve posted to 1291 threads. This is found by searching on “Search By User Name: Rysdad” “Match Partial”.
(If you use “Match Exact” you get a lower number, 1284, which is slightly wrong. This just shows some indexing data was lost at one point, usually a system crash, but the data is still present in the main files. A full index re-build would correct this, but take hours.)
The post count of 1616 is probably about proportional, unless you tend to make lots of repeat posts on one forum and not the other.
But, as TubaDiva said, “Why does it matter?”
All the emphasis on post count status is silly. If you can’t be convincing in the post you’re making now, what good is a big post count? Longevity doesn’t get you any leverage at the office (assuming you work) does it?
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### Author:  [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2000, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/6 "2000-10-15T02:23:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Pyrex® \*
> \*\*All the emphasis on post count status is silly. If you can’t be convincing in the post you’re making now, what good is a big post count? Longevity doesn’t get you any leverage at the office (assuming you work) does it? \*\*
Post doesn’t matter. I’ve said so in other threads. I was trying to get the ratio.
Now, if you feel like you’d like to expand on your snide remark and see how convincing I can be, feel free to take it to the Pit.
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### Author:  [@Pyrex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyrex)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2000, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/7 "2000-10-15T02:41:12Z")
Feel free to go without me. I saw the pit the first day I was here, and can’t say it interests me in the least.
If I was snide, I appologize. I just thought you were acting dense, confusing post count with thread count. Lot of good your experience did you in that simple determination.
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### Author:  [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2000, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/8 "2000-10-15T02:46:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Pyrex® \*
> \*\*I saw the pit the first day I was here, and can’t say it interests me in the least.
> \*\*
Nor you, me.
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### Author:  [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2000, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/9 "2000-10-15T02:51:50Z")
Mods, please lock this post. Even though Pyrex calculated my post count incorrectly, I don’t want to take the time to explain it, and I don’t want to waste Pit space. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@tshirts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tshirts)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2000, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/10 "2000-10-15T06:14:23Z")
Pyrex seems to be right. The search gives a list of threads.
Take this thread for example. The search shows it as a single thread entry, but you have 5 posts in the thread so far.
There’s no reason to posit “missing posts” to find all 1616 posts in 1291 threads.
That’s a fairly typical return-to-thread rate.
The “match exact” thing was covered before in several threads, such as this one:
**[How does Search work. I can’t find even half the places I’ve been to.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=27754)**
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### Author:  [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2000, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/11 "2000-10-15T15:01:03Z")
Although Pyrex might be considered a bit snide, I think he did accurately present the difference between thread count and post count, and how search works. Looking at show\_biz’s link, it seems that the “search exact” option is just a bit out of date, and catches up in a few hours.
I’ll admit to really enjoying calculating pointless statistics about poting habits. It’s pretty useless, but this isn’t eaxctly a message board for people who consider the pointless and trivial beneath them.
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### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2000, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-count-by-forum-possible/36936/12 "2000-10-15T15:25:21Z")
Whoa!
I’m sorry if I started disagreement by my offhand question, that was not my intention at all.
Let’s close this thread.
your humble Tubadiva
Administrator