# Replies/Views a guide to thread quality?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replies-views-a-guide-to-thread-quality/172946
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 4, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replies-views-a-guide-to-thread-quality/172946 "2003-05-04T01:07:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dlknox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dlknox)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replies-views-a-guide-to-thread-quality/172946/1 "2003-05-04T01:07:14Z")
Obviously, with a thread MUST be poular with a title like “Spit or Swallow? A followup poll TMI?” and with 762 replies and 12446 views.
However, if you see a thread with high views, yet low posts, does that mean that the content of the thread did not life up to what was expected by the title? For example: the “how young…?” thread with 7 replies but 224 views.
Does anyone check these as part of determining whether to open a thread?
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2003, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replies-views-a-guide-to-thread-quality/172946/2 "2003-05-04T01:15:11Z")
I usually only look at post count - in two ways - if the post count is low and it’s near the top - it’s new. I like to post in new threads (If I have something worth saying)
I am a bit old fashioned so avoid the spit or swallow thread. (IMO a bit of a vulgar thing to be discussed on an international message board, but I aint going to do anything about it - just not post there)
In short - question 1 - answer - yes. question 2 - answer - not me.
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### Author:  [@flybynight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flybynight)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2003, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replies-views-a-guide-to-thread-quality/172946/3 "2003-05-04T03:27:44Z")
If a thread has a lot of views and replies, but a title that otherwise wouldn’t interest me, I’d probably check it out. If a title interests me, I don’t really care about the post/view counts.
And I’m not sure the post/view counts are indicative of quality at all - popularity, yes, but not always quality (ok, so part of “Spit or Swallow” could be considered quality, unless you’re old fashioned, of course, but most of it’s pointless crap that I wouldn’t want to read, were I not taking a part in it…)
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### Author:  [@Branwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Branwen)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replies-views-a-guide-to-thread-quality/172946/4 "2003-05-04T03:57:37Z")
I don’t usually check either of them. If the subject interests me, then I go in and check it out.