Subtitled: A Nostalgic Romp Down Vanity Search Lane.
It’s Friday afternoon and after a long, strenuous week, things are winding down. i came up with a new way to eat up a little time before whistle blows.
While perusing MPSIMS earlier today, I opened spittingkitten’s ‘What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen/heard/done?’ thread. It was a good read & rather amusing. In it, someone linked a couple of old threads and was mildly scolded by another poster for a “propensity to blow (their) own horn.”
I guess there’s a pretty thin line between shameless self-promotion and acceptable board etiquette. I personally don’t consider pasting links to one’s one threads boorish - But then again, your mileage may vary. As I gave a little thought to what constitutes ‘horn-blowing’, I went to the improved V Bulletin advanced search function and discovered there’s an entirely new way of running searches:
You can now sort your search results in either ascending or descending:[ul]
[li]Number of Replies,[/li][li]Number of Views, or[/li][li]A whole host of other criteria such as: Relevancy, Title, etc.[/ul][/li]
That got me to thinking, if I[list=a]
[li]Search by my own User Name[/li][li]Select: Find Threads Started By User (underneath the User Name)[/li][li]Choose to, Sort Results by: Number of Views / In: Descending Order[/li][li]And then, Show Results As: (*) Threads In All Open Forums[/list]The server would return the ultimate vanity search. [/li]
Before I hit the ‘Search Now’ button, I realized I had no idea what threads would pop up on the list. The results taught me a little about my self and my posting habits. Some of the other things I discovered I’ll put in italics.
For starters,
=> I was surprised to learn I started 183 threads.
(That’s 14% of my post-count! I had no idea I started that many. If my boss knew that he’d have a stroke. I’m gonna lay off starting any new ones until that ratio is down under a more respectable 10%).
I scanned the 1st 25 threads on page 1 of the search. Once again, I was taken by surprise.
=> They ranged in number of views from 4,200 down to 750.
(I didn’t think any thread I ever posted in or started had more than 1,000 views)
=> They were spread across all forums (except GQ):
6 (IMHO), 2 (MPSIMS), 5 (Café Society), 4 (GD) & 8 (BBQ Pit). I would’ve guessed they were all going to be in Cafe Society.
=> Some of the threads I almost forgot about and enjoyed re-reading. Others I was totally embarrassed for even writing. I’m not going to post links to any of them, they’re ancient history.
Poll time: What I’d like to know from any of you who’d like to the search posts you created in descending number of views (preferably during off peak hours) is the following:[ul]
[li]What is your threads created : post count ratio?[/li][li] =>[/li][li]Are there any on the 1st page of results you were surprised to see?[/li][li] =>[/li][li]Were there any threads you thought for certain would have showed up in your top 25 and didn’t?[/li][li] =>[/li][li]Were there any you almost forgot about?[/li][li] =>[/li][li]Were there any you enjoyed rereading? If so, feel free to post a link (by right clicking the title, copying the shortcut and pasting it).[/li][li] =>[/li][li]Are the forums your results are in diverse, or are they limited to one or two?[/li][li] =>[/li][li]Did your curiosity get the best of you and you decided to rerun the search in ascending order? If so, what lemons came up in the search?[/li][li] =>[/li][/ul]
Perhaps I offer no insight that is useful to the board…oh well, you’re stuck with me! 