# Pre-Poll Data Gathering: What are the most popular topics at SDMB?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-gathering-what-are-the-most-popular-topics-at-sdmb/624154>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 5, 2012, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-gathering-what-are-the-most-popular-topics-at-sdmb/624154 "2012-06-05T13:40:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-gathering-what-are-the-most-popular-topics-at-sdmb/624154/1 "2012-06-05T13:40:27Z")

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There have been at least three threads that I know of with questions like [What are your 5 Favorite Topics in Cafe Society?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=651273) that have resulted in polls that have been revealing about prevailing attitudes about what goes on at SDMB.

If you’re like me, the forum-by-forum visiting has been replaced by the “New Posts” approach where you get to see the “hot topics” (or at least the current ones) without having to wade through each individual forum’s posts.

Whatever your approach to checking out what’s being discussed, try to add to the list of regularly recurring and heavily participated in topics, issues, news happenings, and whatever other categories of discussions you feel are “the core” of SDMB’s appeal.

If we get a good list of things that show up more than just a few times, perhaps a poll can be built from that list.

I’ll start with a few that seem to be almost daily categories:

– Latest Government Abuse or Travesty  
– Celebrity Deaths  
– News Of The Weird or Strangely Believe It  
– International Catastrophes  
– Fool of the Day

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**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\
**Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-gathering-what-are-the-most-popular-topics-at-sdmb/624154/2 "2012-06-05T18:16:44Z")

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Why? Why should we do this for you? If you’re gathering message board metadata for a research project (which your posting history indicates), why can’t you do your own legwork?

Research participants usually get paid, too. Why should we do this for free?

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**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-gathering-what-are-the-most-popular-topics-at-sdmb/624154/3 "2012-06-06T21:04:21Z")

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> [@rachelellogram](#):
>
> Why? Why should we do this for you? If you’re gathering message board metadata for a research project (which your posting history indicates), why can’t you do your own legwork?
> 
> Research participants usually get paid, too. Why should we do this for free?

Thank you for your support.

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-gathering-what-are-the-most-popular-topics-at-sdmb/624154/4 "2012-06-06T21:07:27Z")

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Tipping  
Atheism  
Pets  
Hypothetical situations involving choosing life or death  
Etymology

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**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-poll-data-gathering-what-are-the-most-popular-topics-at-sdmb/624154/5 "2012-06-06T21:10:54Z")

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> [@rachelellogram](#):
>
> Why? Why should we do this for you? If you’re gathering message board metadata for a research project (which your posting history indicates), why can’t you do your own legwork?
> 
> Research participants usually get paid, too. Why should we do this for free?

What a strange reply.

Cats/pets  
Relationship issues  
Tv shows  
Books  
Movies