# What's the most successful SMDB thread you've begun? Could you have predicted it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 26, 2006, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223 "2006-06-26T16:35:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/21 "2006-06-27T04:36:22Z")
Mine was last year’s pit thread entitled [Stupid Cheater Tricks](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=299108), which went 6 pages, but had over 20,000 views. It also inspired a couple other threads, including a GD thread about plagiarism. I didn’t expect it to be that big, but apparently lots of people had lots of stories! ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/22 "2006-06-27T05:29:08Z")
**The Garfield Where Jon Drinks Dog Semen** , probably. I had a feeling it would get lots of views. ---
**Author:** ![Klaatu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Klaatu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaatu)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/23 "2006-06-27T05:31:27Z")
Mine would be the infamous “A” thread, which because of a stupid typo on my part, became the most responded to thread in board history with 5000 some replies and over a hundred pages. Not something I am proud of. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Kuizelemartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19b73/32.png) [@Kuizelemartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuizelemartz)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/24 "2006-06-27T05:37:26Z")
[QUOTE=auntie em] The Missing Coworker Thread of 2003. Nevah would have predicted it. [/QUOTE] This is the thread that got me hooked on SDMB. I’d go home for lunch and would read the updates while I ate. We need more drawn out real life soap opera events. Oh, and around then was the thread about the Ice Cooler Chest with Unknown contents. Scary stuff there. ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/25 "2006-06-27T05:48:49Z")
My most successful thread in terms of views and replies was [this post-your-picture thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=276941), with 23,371 views and 669 replies, but I don’t know if that counts, as its success had very little to do with anything I did or posted. Beyond that, it was, sadly, [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=273457) in which I invited all and sundry to gather round and mock my haircut…and boy, I sure didn’t have to ask twice. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/26 "2006-06-27T05:53:20Z")
Apparently it was the first “Munich” thread on the board that I started at Christmas last year. Hmm… still only 69 posts though. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/27 "2006-06-27T07:27:03Z")
[QUOTE=Klaatu] Mine would be the infamous “A” thread, which because of a stupid typo on my part, became the most responded to thread in board history with 5000 some replies and over a hundred pages. Not something I am proud of. :smack: [/QUOTE] So you’re the guilty party! Actually, **Klaatu** , that turned into a wonderful thread. OK, it was inadvertent, but I think it’s justifiable to feel a _wee_ bit proud of having started one of the most memorable threads ever. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/28 "2006-06-27T12:13:03Z")
I think I really predict one way or another about how popular a thread’s going to be—anything over 10 replies is pretty snazzy, by my book—but after running a [search,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?searchid=1739631)[/threadpimping] I’m more surprised over my _second_ most popular thread, by replies, about the banning of .50 rifles in California. Jus’ under 200 replies, a bit under 3000 views. I honestly didn’t see _that_ one comin’. :eek: [Fictional Characters You Utterly Loathe](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=333230) seems to be the leader, by replies (209) and views (6069). That probably shouldn’t surprise me so much…there are certainly plenty of loathable characters out there. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/29 "2006-06-27T13:10:44Z")
I start very few threads, and I even more seldom Pit anyone, so I was mildly surprised to see a recent Pitting garner over 100 responses instead of plummet like a paralyzed falcon. Still, by other standards that’s feeble. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/30 "2006-06-27T13:23:52Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] Still, by other standards that’s feeble. [/QUOTE] Too me, that depends on the content. The game threads we did in the past, including the A thread, were fairly mundane. Fun and interesting, sure, but shallow, as one would expect from a game thread. And some threads, esp in GD or the Pit, become a never ending argument among just a very few participants, each one stating the same things over and over again. To me, that’s mundane and pointless. So, if someone has a thread in which a variety of Dopers express themselves in a variety of ways, I don’t see that as feeble. Look at my examples from above. A couple of threads have soem people playing around. Yippee. Don’t get me wrong, they were fun. But those I linked in the next post had people regularly commenting, both in the thread and via e-mail, about how much they were enjoying the thread. So, their post counts were feeble compared to 3K to 5K, but the threads themselves were not feeble. All because of content. Did you enjoy the content of that thread? Did some others? Then it was successful. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/31 "2006-06-27T13:52:51Z")
Not too surprising given the regularity with which these pop up, mine was a thread about [Which beer is best then?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=347992) with 119 replies. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/32 "2006-06-27T13:56:20Z")
I started a thread called, [15 Years to Master Salt](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=360272&highlight=salt) which was essentially calling bullshit on a claim I heard on Iron Chef, and when I mentioned that the contestant in question was called the “Sorcerer of Salt” people starting entitling themselves, and the thread turned into an hilarioius and completely unanticipated hijack that ran to 159 replies and 7,000+ views. Some of my faves: Duke of Oil, Prime Minister of Prime Rib, Caeser of Salads. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Clam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@Happy\_Clam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Clam)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/33 "2006-06-27T14:06:22Z")
For me it was my recent [Everyone On Earth Will Want To See This Movie!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=376009) thread. I had thought it might get a few replies and views (I sneakily put “Snakes on a Plane” in the thread title to lure 'em in) but I never thought it would get 'Spotted! (Something I got far too excited over :wally) ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/34 "2006-06-27T21:34:43Z")
My most successful thread to date: [“There’s a registered sex offender living in my neighborhood”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=301600) (177 replies, 5961 views) – considering the subject matter (plus a similar controversy raging on the SDMB at the time) its success was almost guaranteed. Another recent hit: [“What’s the most useless key on the keyboard?”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=370495) (93 replies, 1983 views) came as a complete surprise. With these MPSIMS/IMHO threads, you can never tell what will take off. I’m rather bitter, though, that [“Jesus Christ: The Musical”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=373962) sank like a rock. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/35 "2006-06-27T22:23:53Z")
[QUOTE=bubastis] Hmmm… numbers wise, not a big success, but I went on an ill-advised rant/meltdown/bitching session in the pit, which had me shot down in seconds. Boxed into a corner, I lashed out at all around me, generally getting a name for myself as an obnoxious little shit. But, at least I had a name for myself, a recognisable entity on the boards. All I had to do was apologise and grovel and be as helpful as I could for a few months… I think I’ve been largely forgiven. I hope. So, in a way, it was a success. But I’d still rather it was stricken from the record. [/QUOTE] If it helps, I no longer automatically cringe when I see your username. 😉 My most successfull thread (333 replies, 13,102 views) was the soap opera about WhyBaby’s early entrance into the world: [Emergency C-section and a 23 week old infant. Ugh.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=302685) (And yes, so far she’s lived Happily Ever After. [Cite.](http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rhiannon_dreamsnake/detail?.dir=3e83re2&.dnm=cc5bre2.jpg&.src=ph) ) My next-most-popular thread (303 replies, 11,096 views), and one not all about me, was [OK, someone tell me why I should stop panicking. (NSA call database.)](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=371171&page=1&pp=50), which rapidly got way over my head. I got intimidated and stopped reading it somewhere in the third page. Perhaps I’ll try to tackle it later tonight, as a lot of really smart people posted really smart things in it. I didn’t really expect either one to be so noticed. OTOH, [Mexico decriminalizing drugs.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=369421), which I expected to be a bit more sensationalist and controversial, hardly made a blip on the Dopedar. Come to think of it, I haven’t heard anything about it on any news outlets since then. I wonder if it ever happened. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/36 "2006-06-27T22:32:14Z")
[Fun and games with Mr Austin Wemba](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=242804) - 138 posts, 12,592 views. Looking back, it wasn’t even all that good - it played out in very linear fashion, but people seemed to like it. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/37 "2006-06-27T23:10:04Z")
The [Arrested Development 2 Hour Series Finale](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=357799), the [Historic Posts throughout SDMB history](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=352304), and [Diarrhea in the Jacuzzi](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=356483) threads are probably my most successful. Only the “Historic Posts” one was aided by being threadspotted. [99 Little Known Facts about Cecil Adams](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=333927) did pretty well, but it, too, was helped by Threadspotting. Happy ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2006, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/38 "2006-06-28T00:22:51Z")
[Secret Santa bragging thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=228742) from December 2003. ---
**Author:** ![Plan\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/39 "2006-06-28T03:21:52Z")
I had just gotten a free gmail account from a friend and had a few invitations left over. Since some of the IMHO posters had been so generous and helpful with my questions I figured I’d offer them here. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=260726&highlight=gmail](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=260726&highlight=gmail) The result: over 700 replies and 10,000 views. ---
**Author:** ![Klaatu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Klaatu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaatu)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2006, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223/40 "2006-06-28T05:15:10Z")
[QUOTE=aldiboronti] So you’re the guilty party! Actually, **Klaatu** , that turned into a wonderful thread. OK, it was inadvertent, but I think it’s justifiable to feel a _wee_ bit proud of having started one of the most memorable threads ever. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Thank you **aldiboronti** but **Hamlet** should actually get the credit for unleashing the monster. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-smdb-thread-youve-begun-could-you-have-predicted-it/362223.md?page=3)