Appreciation post: I logged 400 hours in conspiracy forums and the pattern in how threads get shut down shocked me
I started keeping a simple log back in January, just date, topic, and whether a thread got locked or removed. At 400 hours around mid June I ran the numbers and 68 percent of the locked threads I tracked got shut down within the first two pages of replies, usually right when someone posted a source link or a date. That timing is what got me, because a thread dying from boredom looks different from a thread dying the moment a document shows up. I am not saying there is some office of thread killers, but if you are reading a debate and it goes quiet all at once, screenshot it first. Has anyone else kept a log like this, and did your numbers come out anything like mine?