# What does "listening" mean in the Slate.com comments section?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-listening-mean-in-the-slate-com-comments-section/681387>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 15, 2014, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-listening-mean-in-the-slate-com-comments-section/681387 "2014-02-15T00:36:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2014, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-listening-mean-in-the-slate-com-comments-section/681387/1 "2014-02-15T00:36:46Z")

</div>

Over at [Slate.com](http://Slate.com), click on most articles and there is a somewhat obscured option to comment. This section reports “ **_x_ comments** ” and “ **_y_ people listening** ” What does the ‘people listening’ mean?

Go way back in the archives, Dec 2013, and there are reportedly ‘‘people listening’’. [Photos: Open-air schools for sick kids in the early twentieth century](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/12/19/photos_open_air_schools_for_sick_kids_in_the_early_twentieth_century.html) for example.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-listening-mean-in-the-slate-com-comments-section/681387/2 "2014-02-15T00:46:32Z")

</div>

I should have mentioned above, I have inquired of Slate and of Slate users and get no explanation.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2014, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-listening-mean-in-the-slate-com-comments-section/681387/3 "2014-02-15T13:47:42Z")

</div>

I’ve assumed that it indicates the number of people who have clicked to open the comment section, and that it decrements automatically when you click elsewhere on the page to close the comments. That is what seems to happen for me, at least most of the time (e.g., the icon shows 8 people listening but when I open the comments, it increases to 9).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2014, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-listening-mean-in-the-slate-com-comments-section/681387/4 "2014-02-15T13:50:57Z")

</div>

Hmm, actually the icon shows the number of comments, not the number of people listening. I do see the “\_\_\_ people listening” bump up one whenever I open comments on a page though, so that’s still my best guess.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-listening-mean-in-the-slate-com-comments-section/681387/5 "2014-02-17T21:59:27Z")

</div>

> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> Hmm, actually the icon shows the number of comments, not the number of people listening. I do see the “\_\_\_ people listening” bump up one whenever I open comments on a page though, so that’s still my best guess.

My ‘best guess’ too until I noticed that the same ‘listeners’ a month later. I subsequently did some brief snooping and found [Red Lobster’s bad food problem: It’s egregious.](http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/12/27/red_lobster_s_bad_food_problem_it_s_egregious.html) which has about 199 'listening. There are not 200 people viewing comments on a Dec '13 article about red lobster. Something must be hung up in the data.