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steelphantom

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 15, 2005
555
1
I've been to many other forums, and, much like here at MacRumors, there are normal topics and "hot" topics. I always understood a hot topic to be one with a set number of posts (15, 20, 25, etc.), and once a topic reached that number it would be considered "hot." Here at MacRumors, however, I've seen topics with only 3 replies be considered hot, while some with 9 replies are marked as normal topics. What's up with that? Is there some other reason why some topics are hot and others... how shall I say... are not? :p
 

Deepdale

macrumors 68000
May 4, 2005
1,965
0
New York
steelphantom said:
Is there some other reason why some topics are hot and others... how shall I say... are not?

I believe 150 or more views makes a topic "hot" ... it is not contingent upon the number of replies that a given thread receives.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,777
7,498
Los Angeles
Hot threads are supposed to be those with either 15 posts or 150 views. The latter condition occurs much sooner, so reaching 150 views is generally why a thread turns hot.

I couldn't easily spot a thread with 15 or more posts but not yet 150 views, to confirm this rule, but I did find a thread with 14 posts and less than 150 views, so I posted to it to see if it would turn hot. Sure enough, it did!
 

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WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,375
2,801
Have those thresholds been modified at all over the years as the popularity of MacRumors has grown? It seems like at least 60% of the threads are hot when I do a "New Posts" search...I'd prefer that it be a lower percentage, maybe 25-30%. When the majority of active threads are hot, the status loses its importance.

Anybody else have thoughts on this?
 

Deepdale

macrumors 68000
May 4, 2005
1,965
0
New York
WildCowboy said:
... When the majority of active threads are hot, the status loses its importance. Anybody else have thoughts on this?

FWIW, I agree with you. I think 300 views or 30 replies would be more reasonable.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,777
7,498
Los Angeles
WildCowboy said:
Have those thresholds been modified at all over the years as the popularity of MacRumors has grown? It seems like at least 60% of the threads are hot when I do a "New Posts" search...I'd prefer that it be a lower percentage, maybe 25-30%. When the majority of active threads are hot, the status loses its importance.

Anybody else have thoughts on this?
By nature, the New Posts feature is likely to favor hot threads, since those are the threads most likely to have been posted to.

When I reviewed the percentages informally, I found that the thresholds seemed too low in the news forums (because almost all threads are hot) but about right in most other forums. Some forums, like Mac Basics and Help, have few hot threads. Since the forum software does not support separate thresholds for each forum, it didn't seem useful to tinker.

But it would be interesting to hear people's opinions about what percentage of hot threads should be the overall target.
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,375
2,801
Doctor Q said:
By nature, the New Posts feature is likely to favor hot threads, since those are the threads most likely to have been posted to.

Of course. But for many of us, New Posts is the primary way to browse the forums. I never pay attention to the "hot" icon because it flags so many threads. But clearly the data is of interest to me because I scan the number of replies for each thread as I browse. It's not a big deal, but if a lot of people would like things to change, it might make sense to do so.
 

Blue Velvet

Moderator emeritus
Jul 4, 2004
21,929
265
I bought this up less than a year ago in this thread.

Didn't go much further if I remember rightly... in my view, 'hot' threads should be a little less common and therefore, hopefully more noteworthy.
 

steelphantom

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 15, 2005
555
1
Ahh, I see! I was kind of puzzled there for a while. Thanks for clearing that up. :D Basing it on views and posts seems like a very good way to do it, although I never really pay attention to whether a thread is hot or not when I'm browsing the forums. I only pay just enough attention to warrant making a post about it. :p
 

Deepdale

macrumors 68000
May 4, 2005
1,965
0
New York
steelphantom said:
I only pay just enough attention to warrant making a post about it. :p

How could life be meaningful if we failed to participate in one of the smokin' hot threads that asks for favorite brand of soap? :)
 
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