# SDMB as spinning plates, or, Do you strive to always have an active thread? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 4, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274 "2006-04-04T16:13:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/1 "2006-04-04T16:13:00Z")
Me, I always get an extra little spring in my keyboarding finger when I know I have an SDMB thread at the top of the charts. Now, I’ve never actually gone out of my way to create a thread just to get that extra little thrill, but it makes me wonders if others have. So, how about it? 'Fess-up time is here. Tell us of your dirty little addiction to seeing people fawning over your threads. ---
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/2 "2006-04-04T18:39:47Z")
I admit, it’s nice to see your thread go beyond one page. You feel like you’ve contributed something for lively discussion, something that everyone feels compelled to chime in on. I’m somewhat new, so maybe the appeal is lost the longer you’re on the boards and the more threads you start. Maybe it just becomes a given? I notice a lot of the same people start threads on a regular basis, so I wonder if they feel under any pressure to keep threads going? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/3 "2006-04-04T20:31:39Z")
It sounds cliche but I strive more towards quality than quantity. I have been here six years and have read an ungodly amount of stuff. I don’t post any GQ OP’s unless I haven’t seen them before or they have a big twist. I go for the unique stuff and it usually works out well. Sometimes I will start three threads in a day and other times I will go a month without starting one. It just depends on what pops into my head and that isn’t usually a conscience process. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/4 "2006-04-04T20:54:52Z")
I’m more or less with **Shagnasty**. Quality over quantity and sometimes you’ll post a thread that you think whoops a camel’s ass and then it falls flat on its face. Such is life, though. I usually start a thread when I get a question that pops into my head; usually one that I think requires a larger sample of the population or more insight to work over. Hell, at one time last week, I had three threads going at the same time. I’m a multitasker, I am. (sometimes) ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/5 "2006-04-04T20:59:01Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > It sounds cliche but I strive more towards quality than quantity. I have been here six years and have read an ungodly amount of stuff. I don’t post any GQ OP’s unless I haven’t seen them before or they have a big twist Same here. I’m not a big thread starter at all. Most of the time, if I want to know something factual, it’s Google-able or has been asked before, I’ve been around here long enough to have seen all the joke and game threads done to death, and I’m sure the vast majority of you are not at all interested in my cat. I have noticed a weird phenomenon with threads I do start though. They usually get a respectable two or three pages, neither blowing out to fifty pages nor sinking like a stone with zero replies, however the weird thing is most of them seem to sink out of sight off the first page unanswered for a couple of days at first, and then they bounce back and do okay. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/6 "2006-04-04T21:09:41Z")
I really hate it when I’m the thread killer. The last poster. The end. I started a pit thread once - scary! ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/7 "2006-04-04T21:45:05Z")
> [@LunaV](#): > > Maybe it just becomes a given? I notice a lot of the same people start threads on a regular basis, so I wonder if they feel under any pressure to keep threads going? Depends on the posters. I rarely start a thread (maybe 40 or 50 in something like 6 years and 7000 post), and most of them are GQ. And I’m not the only one doing so. Indeed a small percentage of the posters start a large percentage of the threads. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/8 "2006-04-04T22:11:33Z")
Good lord no. People rarely read what I post now, if I had to start trying to force posts they would get even less response. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/9 "2006-04-04T23:11:42Z")
Heavens, no! I just start a thread when I feel like it. Sometimes you strike gold, and sometimes not. I’ve had at least two with 0 replies, but I’ve also started the second (third?) longest Pit thread ever. As someone above said, it is a nice feeling to find that you’ve struck a chord with your fellow Dopers, but I think that has to come naturally. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/10 "2006-04-04T23:25:29Z")
I like to participate in active threads, but I rarely start them. After coming here daily for five or six years, it’s not easy to come up with something interesting that hasn’t been done. Kudos to the posters who do! ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/11 "2006-04-04T23:37:23Z")
Gimme another stick. I just started a new thread. _spinning two plates, tongue hanging out, trying to concentrate on said plates_ ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/12 "2006-04-05T00:58:49Z")
I couldn’t maintain the pace of having a thread or threads open all the time! I don’t have _that much_ to say. I only start threads once in a great while if I think it’ll make for interesting discussion. I currently have one that’s gone to two pages, which is nice. Mostly, I read, and respond to some threads. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/13 "2006-04-05T01:37:42Z")
I don’t really strive to have an active thread, but I will admit to having bumped a couple with a post that didn’t really need to be made when it disappeared over the horizon and I thought that if it got some viewership it would catch on. This is usually when it’s a topic I really wanted to see some discussion of but it just kinda lay there and died and sank. A couple of times this has really worked and an ignored thread is suddenly getting mondo hits and answers and sometimes I just had to pull the plug and close its eyes when it still flatlined after the defibs. I’m always surprised at which of my threads do and don’t catch on. There are several that I thought were really great topics that got 40 hits and no responses and others that I thought were basically throwaways and that went several pages. I _never_ would have thought the Pitting of my mother and sister would get 30,000+ hits while I thought that one of the threads I started over the West Memphis Three would get some major argument going and I think it got about three responses. I have thought of blogging, which requires a continual active thread, but I prefer here because it’s a much bigger crowd, if I don’t feel like posting for a few days then it’s no big deal (which can be death knell to a blog) and generally the same stuff I’d post to a blog is the same stuff I post here. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/14 "2006-04-05T01:42:34Z")
No “spinning plates” for me. I’ve pretty much decided not to initiate any more threads. The only times I’ve received hateful emails related to the SDMB, the trouble was related to threads that I started. I have learned my lesson. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/15 "2006-04-05T01:43:03Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I don’t really strive to have an active thread, but I will admit to having bumped a couple with a post that didn’t really need to be made when it disappeared over the horizon and I thought that if it got some viewership it would catch on. This is usually when it’s a topic I really wanted to see some discussion of but it just kinda lay there and died and sank. A couple of times this has really worked and an ignored thread is suddenly getting mondo hits and answers and sometimes I just had to pull the plug and close its eyes when it still flatlined after the defibs. > > I’m always surprised at which of my threads do and don’t catch on. There are several that I thought were really great topics that got 40 hits and no responses and others that I thought were basically throwaways and that went several pages. I _never_ would have thought the Pitting of my mother and sister would get 30,000+ hits while I thought that one of the threads I started over the West Memphis Three would get some major argument going and I think it got about three responses. > > I have thought of blogging, which requires a continual active thread, but I prefer here because it’s a much bigger crowd, if I don’t feel like posting for a few days then it’s no big deal (which can be death knell to a blog) and generally the same stuff I’d post to a blog is the same stuff I post here. You hear that? That…sound… It’s the sound of me heartily agreeing with you. Rock on with your bad self. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/16 "2006-04-05T01:59:36Z")
I think **BrainGlutton** is the ultimate plate spinner, at least in great debates. Quite often he’ll have 6 or 8 going at the same time. I am surprised to see only four over there rigth now. But considering the weighty subject matter, four GD plates is equal to sixteen in MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/17 "2006-04-05T05:20:18Z")
I like to get in early in the debates in the Great Debates forum. Sometimes, if you’re late to the party, the party ends up something completely different from what the host intended it to be. I like starting the party in that forum. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-as-spinning-plates-or-do-you-strive-to-always-have-an-active-thread/351274/18 "2006-04-05T05:37:06Z")
I’d prefer my name to be at the top of the page in the SUBJECT line.