# What non-sticky threads have had the most views? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 22, 2002, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-sticky-threads-have-had-the-most-views/133433 "2002-10-22T22:32:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-sticky-threads-have-had-the-most-views/133433/21 "2002-10-27T12:43:23Z")
femtosecond, I figured if the default was for “any date” and one went to a particular forum page and clicked “Views,” then one was only resorting what was only retrieved - is that wrong? ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-sticky-threads-have-had-the-most-views/133433/22 "2002-10-27T14:55:45Z")
Each forum view is a new, separate query on the current database. Except for carrying over the basic search settings in the links, it’s independent of the previously displayed page and its contents. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-sticky-threads-have-had-the-most-views/133433/23 "2002-10-27T15:39:46Z")
Anthracite - I misread the original post, but now I understand that people were not using the search screen, as I believed, but using the drop-down field on the forum list. If you’re not going through search, and if that facility is provided on the forum list screen, there might be a more efficient way of reading the data. I didn’t ask vBulletin, so you would have a more accurate story than my educated guesses. I’m still sure that a “select sum (…)” from the table is a totally different operation than what is happening from when you sort by # of views on the forum page. dantheman, when you go to a forum page, the program only retrieves as much data as necessary for the first page. If you notice, for a forum display that takes up more than one page, there is still a delay when you go to page 2, because data is being retrieved from the database. If the total # of views / total # of counts were a field in a table, with an index upon it, then (depending on how the program is written) it’s possible (and even probable from my tests) that it’s not as ineffficient as I thought when the information was being obtained from the search screen. I was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2002, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-sticky-threads-have-had-the-most-views/133433/24 "2002-10-27T16:02:46Z")
In case anyone would rather dicuss searching in another thread, I put one here: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141430](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141430) Since we’ve strayed a little from the OP… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-sticky-threads-have-had-the-most-views/133433/25 "2002-10-28T02:59:30Z")
The numbers of replies are somewhat misleading… “Guy Stuff” dates from way back in the UBB days, but vBulletin seems (or at least, seemed: It may have been fixed in the current version) to have difficulties with threads over ten pages. So threads were/are closed when they get too long, with a sequel started by either the mod who closed it, or the person who started the original thread. Hence, for instance, the different versions of “Ask the Gay Guy”. As for views, I’m pretty sure that the fortune-telling thread in ATMB and “Very Vaguely Creepy” in IMHO were both Threadspotted, and maybe some of the others as well. And notice that the Board’s most-viewed thread (since we went to vB, at least) is, indeed, discussing sex (UBB didn’t track views, so it’s possible that, say, “Guy Stuff” actually had more). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-sticky-threads-have-had-the-most-views/133433.md?page=1)