Prompted by this question, on May 30 I looked through the threads in each forum over the past year and ran some statistics on them. The raw data is available here (4.5 MB .ZIP file; expands to Excel format) for anyone interested in further exploration.
Overview
There were 70819 total lines of data (each line is a thread), with 1702 moved threads, making for 69117 actual threads active over the last year.
1702 threads moved = 2.46% of total active threads
1578 threads locked = 2.28%
2954 threads with no replies = 4.27%
7513 members who started threads:
- astro (623 threads)
- ralph124c (476)
- Jinx (447)
- Lobsang (431)
- Eve (403)
- Phlosphr (313)
- Ranchoth (307)
- Johnny L.A. (293)
- Otto (268)
- Sampiro (261)
All Forums, Before Subscription
Because there is no timestamp (available to us, anyway) for when a thread is viewed, we need some way to estimate which threads were made before and after subscription plan went into effect at noon March 22. I used the timestamp from the last post in each thread for this purpose. As most threads are active for less than one day (in terms of posts made to it), I think this should be “good enough.”
56540 threads active
1424 threads moved = 2.52%
1376 threads locked = 2.43%
2492 threads with no replies = 4.41%
Views per thread: mean = 491, median = 240
Replies per thread: mean = 20, median= 9
Estimated thread active lifespan: mean = 7.2 days, median = 0.9 days (this is the length of time between the OP and the last post to each thread)
Estimated views per day: 93,812 (for all threads)
All Forums, After Subscription
12577 threads active
278 threads moved = 2.21%
202 threads locked = 1.61%
462 threads with no replies = 3.67%
Views per thread: mean = 548, median = 266
Replies per thread: mean = 21, median= 10
Estimated thread active lifespan: mean = 9.1 days, median = 0.9 days
Estimated views per day: 99.857
I’ve pointed out elsewhere that thread and post creation activity continues on a downward trend, but by these numbers it appears that there is a greater degree of participation, in that each thread started gets more replies and views since subscription.
The following statistics for each forum are for the entire year. Also, moved threads are included in the calculations – they were removed for the combined calculations above to avoid double-counting.
About This Message Board
1195 threads active
22 threads moved = 1.84%
77 threads locked = 6.44%
65 threads with no replies = 5.44%
665 members who started threads:
- Lobsang (46 threads)
- Quasimodem (14)
- Jim B. (14)
- Jinx (11)
- NoClueBoy (10)
Comments on Cecil’s Columns
641 threads active
31 threads moved = 4.84%
12 threads locked = 1.87%
34 threads with no replies = 5.30%
560 members who started threads:
- tracer (5 threads)
- Spiff (5)
- Priceguy (5)
- SCSimmons (4)
- Snakespirit (3)
Comments on Staff Reports
252 threads active
20 threads moved = 7.94%
7 threads locked = 2.78%
7 threads with no replies = 2.78%
221 members who started threads:
- tracer (3 threads)
- smootman (3)
- jkim78 (3)
- beccabee52000 (3)
- RM Mentock (3 – No. 6 started 2 threads)
General Questions
25208 threads active
761 threads moved = 3.02%
612 threads locked = 2.43%
989 threads with no replies = 3.92%
5012 members who started threads:
- Jinx (301 threads)
- ralph124c (219)
- gypsymoth3 (174)
- astro (171)
- Ranchoth (131)
Some of the most frequently-occurring words in GQ thread titles:
how: 1959 occurrences
what: 1915
what’s: 450
why: 1445
Great Debates
4513 threads active
153 threads moved = 3.39%
104 threads locked = 2.30%
60 threads with no replies = 1.33%
1428 members who started threads:
- ralph124c (80 threads)
- astro (77)
- Reeder (72)
- december (69)
- BrainGlutton (68)
Some of the most frequently-occurring words in GD thread titles:
Iraq: 187 occurrences
Bush: 185
war: 112
Cafe Society
12387 threads active
35 threads moved = 0.28%
59 threads locked = 0.48%
760 threads with no replies = 6.14%
2650 members who started threads:
- Sampiro (164 threads)
- Eve (153)
- Ranchoth (118)
- Otto (100)
- Mr. Blue Sky (97)
Some of the most frequently-occurring words in CS thread titles:
star: 151
episode: 110 (I assume these are Star Wars Episodes)
LOTR: 107 occurrences (the phrase “Lord of the Rings” appears 21 times)
Simpsons: 79 (the string “Simpson” appears 116 times)
trek: 78 (the phrase “Star Trek” appears 68 times)
enterprise: 74 (I assume these are also Star Trek threads)
wars: 66 (the phrase “Star Wars” appears 54 times)
Potter: 60 (the phrase “Harry Potter” appears 61 times – there was one appearance of the word Potter’s)
In My Humble Opinion
9161 threads active
383 threads moved = 4.18%
124 threads locked = 1.35%
269 threads with no replies = 2.94%
2536 members who started threads:
- astro (146 threads)
- Phlosphr (99)
- Isabelle (80)
- Lobsang (78)
- Wesley Clark (64)
Looking for opinions? IMHO says:
help: 343 occurrences in thread titles
advice: 295
MPSIMS
11979 threads active
249 threads moved = 2.08%
235 threads locked = 1.96%
715 threads with no replies = 5.97%
2581 members who started threads:
- Eve (175 threads)
- astro (123)
- Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor (123)
- Lobsang (114)
- Johnny L.A. (107)
The BBQ Pit
5483 threads active
48 threads moved = 0.88%
348 threads locked = 6.35%
55 threads with no replies = 1.00%
1735 members who started threads:
- Lobsang (70 threads)
- Reeder (46)
- Diogenes the Cynic (40)
- Biggirl (35)
- danceswithcats (33)
Feel the hate:
fucking: 228 occurrences in thread titles
fuck: 220 (the string “fuck” in various guises appears a total of 503 times)
stupid: 108
bush: 107 (I didn’t check on the capitalization, but evidently the word is a popular subject of the Dopers’ ire. And yes, this and the above words are ranked next to each other, though of course that doesn’t imply any linkage.)
Forum Participation
Not all members participate in all forums. Of the 7513 members captured in this snapshot:
3526 started threads in only 1 forum (46.93%)
1478, 2 forums (19.67%)
856, 3 forums (11.39%)
662, 4 forums (8.81%)
476, 5 forums (6.34%)
335, 6 forums (4.46%)
143, 7 forums(1.90%)
34, 8 forums (0.45%)
3, 9 forums (0.04%)