Why do you think some "quality" topics get so few responses?

@miamilady (4910)
United States
July 4, 2007 9:54am CST
I'm not talking about my own discussions here... I was about to post a topic and realized that it must be something that has been posted before. I thought I had seen it, so I did a search to check. Sure enough, the topic was there. The topic is "How do you measure sucdess?" I was suprised to see, that although it has been posted serveral times, each of the discussions has less than 10 responses. They were posted some time ago, so the reason it not, that the topic was too new. Why do you think people have not posted responses to this topic?
15 people like this
35 responses
@derek_a (10874)
4 Jul 07
I don't know why some topics would get so few responses, but I think it's down to the popularity of the subject. I have started some subjects about Zen and more philosophical topics when I first started here and I think that for some people it was a little too deep. But if I put up a subject something to do with computers, responses keep coming for quite a while afterwards. :-)
5 people like this
@lpetges (3036)
• United States
6 Jul 07
i agree that your friends respond mostly. i have put out more than 100 discussions, and not more than 10 responses on each! i don't know how those discussions with 60 and 70 responses are doing it!
1 person likes this
@derek_a (10874)
5 Jul 07
Oh yes, I forgot about the friends aspect. I agree that if you have good quality friends and answer their discussions, if they are able, they will respond to your discussions also. :-)
1 person likes this
@miamilady (4910)
• United States
4 Jul 07
hmmm I don't know too much about Zen. I've heard of it. I have the very basic idea, but I haven't studied it. Yeah, that might be a little too deep for most mylotters. Personally, I'm interested in a lot of things but very few things are so interesting that I put a great effort into exploring it. I have a bit of a short attention span, so I can relate to people not wanting to get too deep. I agree somewhat with your reasoning on the number of responses to certain topics. I think another reason would be the number and type of friends that the originator of the discussion has.
5 people like this
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
4 Jul 07
I think taht the reason most good quality discussions get few responses is that they take some thought and time to respond to. So those that are here for the money will respond to the easier discussion and skip the more difficult ones.
5 people like this
• Mauritius
5 Jul 07
Hi deebomb, I think you got that one spot on. It has a lot to do with time which as you all know is equal to money:)But I also think that what one might find interesting can be boring for others.
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
5 Jul 07
That and one has to come back more than once to have a discussion.
1 person likes this
@shelagh77 (3643)
4 Jul 07
I think that a lot of people come onto Mylot to chill out and have a few sillier discussions and generally wind down at the end of the day. There are also a lot of people who just want to answer "yes, I do that" to every discussion and the more serious ones don't really give them that option. I tend to have a blend of both, sometimes I am in serious mode and most times I am in scatty mode lol. I did have a serious discussion trying to find out the best place in the UK to live, for a friend who is moving here from Italy, and I got only four answers so that wasn't much help, but on the whole I lurve Mylot just the way it is. Oh, and I am still busy doing nothing also lol.
• Philippines
4 Jul 07
yeah, that too! a lot of people just drop by the site to chill out and are not really into the really serious topics. i also see people just dropping one liners, obviously not in the mood to be profound. which i guess is okay, i do that too sometimes.
1 person likes this
@sunshinecup (7871)
4 Jul 07
Because most on here, are here for the money and less on thinking out an answer to a good question. It's sad really, they rather answer, "Do you like my boobs?" than a question about sucess. I try to pick friends that are more into deep discussions than earning that quick penny.
4 people like this
• Malaysia
6 Jul 07
I agree with you. I've been here for less than 24 hours, and I find it sad that there are a lot of very low-quality posts, posts that one would normally throw out the window if one were on a normal forum. Still, it's nice to see people here who are more into the discussion rather than the money. ^_^
1 person likes this
@sigma77 (5383)
• United States
4 Jul 07
Many people do not want to think about any serious answers. They are here only for the quicky post and a few dollars. In my view, success is best measured from within the person themselves. I mean comparing yourself to yourself to see if you are making progress. And not comparing yourself to others. Success can be different for different people. Anyway, the quality topics take some measure of thought beyond one or two sentences. I think most people here are not here to give quality answers. JMHO.
5 people like this
@rosie_123 (6113)
4 Jul 07
Well this may seem a little cynical or sceptical, but my immediate reaction is because this question makes people think too much and search within themselves before answering - and most people are too lazy or pressed for time, for that! If you look around MyLot, it seems to be divided into two distinct camps. There are the ones who are here just here to make money, and don't really care about anything apart from posting large numbers of comments each day to keep their "post count" up, and then the ones who like to talk about themselves, their famiies, and their everyday life, as all you have to do to for tis is look around you to seek inspiration - either in the antics of your children, your pets or yur workmates, and these kind of topics are fairly easy to turn out. "Quality" topics will not attract either one of these groups, because they take too much time to formulate an answer for. The "money orientated" posters just won't be bothered to "waste time" on them, because they could post 10 other answers in the time it could take to answer one quality one, and the others just physically won't have the time because theyre doing MyLot when they shouldn't be during working hours (like me!), or in the middle of their household chores. Just my take on it anyway!!
@Willowlady (10658)
• United States
4 Jul 07
Perhaps some of those folks were new. It takes time to make some friends and for others to discover your discussions. Also some people don't see themselves as successes. Life has been cruel to many folks growing up. Also sucess is particular to each person...some think money, some think family, another may think freedom and others we can only guess. Perhaps this is why. Will watch and see what others have to say.
1 person likes this
@miamilady (4910)
• United States
5 Jul 07
I agree. I think the number of friends that a person has affects the number of responses that they receive. A also agree that success is measured diffrently by each individual. Thanks for your response.
• United States
4 Jul 07
Perhaps it would require people to think and answer with a "quality" response. I guess many members are mostly drawn to "fluff" type discussions, where they have more fun and dont really want to delve to deep into their own success, or lack of have achieved any to measure by.
1 person likes this
@diannebcrs (1549)
• Philippines
4 Jul 07
yeah, i've come across really important topics, or huge topics that end up having just few responses. i guess people don't have huge answers or just don't want to think about it. or maybe are just not interested in those topics - although it baffles me why they would not be interested when we can actually learn a lot from having serious discussions like these. anyway i measure success in the amount of contentment the person has in his/her life and if the person can really say that he/she has achieved his/her desired end, whatever it could be. i don't really measure it in terms of money or job positions or anything like that because there have been a lot of rich and seemingly successful people who are simply just frustrated about their lives.
@miamilady (4910)
• United States
5 Jul 07
I agree. So many people who have business or money success miserable. They spend so much time working to achieve what they think of as "success" that tehy lose time with their loved ones. Thanks for your response.
@RobinJ (2501)
• Canada
4 Jul 07
I would think that what we may think is interesting and informative may not be to others. it is as simple as that. As well, I have found that a lot of people do not have a clue on how to find and answers discussions. Those are the ones that are here for the money and to sell something to us. so if you put the two together a lot of space is tied up with discussions that are not interesting nor helpful, and because there are so many people trying to post a lot of discussions there is very little quality and the page for that discussion may stay on the front page for a few minutes only, then if you have to dig through a lot of garbage to get to a good discussion, it hardly seems worth your while. I have found personally that several of my friends do have excellent discussions and I will even go to their profile page to find a discussion to answer. it saves me a lot of time. Sorry this is so long but hope it helps a bit Robin
2 people like this
• United States
5 Jul 07
what i think is that people don't know the answers to such qualified questions. it must be quite hard, shouldn't it?
1 person likes this
@maddysmommy (16230)
• United States
4 Jul 07
I would think a quality topic like that would require a lot of thinking (well on my part) but I could be wrong. I wonder if there are other topics like this that don't have many responses? I know all the easy type questions have over 100 posts in a lot of them. Not mine that's for sure LOL
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
4 Jul 07
Maybe because they don't feel sucessful, being that they work on Mylot. I know for me, there are lots of ones that I skip, because I am not in the mood to do a lot of thinking. I also skip, when the post is too long or there are already a lot of responses. Unless, I have something unique to only me to say, I know that what I have to say has probably been said already. I am also learning not to post when I don't agree with the person. I lose ratings this way. This is not the type of site where you can be as honest as you would like. You know the mother rule, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.
1 person likes this
@miamilady (4910)
• United States
5 Jul 07
My mood also dictates the type of discussions that I will respond to. Sometimes I prefer the easy and fun ones. Sometimes I prefer the "deeper" ones. I don't mind a discusion that starts with a paragraph or two, but if it gets any longer than that, I usually move on. I just have a short attention span, I guess.
1 person likes this
@mummymo (23706)
4 Jul 07
I'm not sure why this happens miamilady - but one of my theories is that sometimes a post gets 'buried' - it just comes out at the wrong time I guess. You kn ow if you reply to some of these discussions it brings it back to life and other people may notice them? Just a thought xxx
1 person likes this
• Canada
4 Jul 07
I was wondering since you were going to write about the topic and didnt! Did you comment on the topics to bring them back to the surface again or no? I do wonder the same thing about topics? Why do the ones I consider my good topics get zero to one comment and the ones I consider my poorest get the most comments? Sometimes I think it is because people are so overloaded with concerns that they don't want to deal with anything to serious! What do you think? I know that I can be that way at times? I get in moods where I just want to talk about nothingness! Things that are not only not important but just plain neither here nor there type of topics! Also depending on how you worded your discussion you could of posted it! It only as to be written differently possing a different question of course. I mean there are many ways to ask the same question in order to draw out the different possible answers. The same question written differently gives new insight into the question then causing different points of view to be posted. I find it fasincating to see similar questions and see how they are all slightly different! Does anyone ever take notice of that? I like your question; thank you!
1 person likes this
@miamilady (4910)
• United States
5 Jul 07
This morning I replied to 3 discussions on that topic. I hope that the discussions get some more responses as well. I'm sure I could have started it myself with a different twist to it but I just figured, this time, I would leave it to those who started it before me.
@academic2 (7000)
• Uganda
5 Jul 07
You are spot-on about low responses to quality topics. Truth is that we mylotians are preoccupied with scribbling as many postings as we can so, topics that demand a lot of analysis rarely attract us. Spending a lot of time on mind boggling topics would mean you will be sending fewer posts to mylot-please dont forget the pecuniary dynamics embedded in mylot-no one wants to be academic here!
@worldwise1 (14885)
• United States
4 Jul 07
Hi there miamilady. Here is my view on the subject: I've noticed since being here on MyLot that there seems to be an unwritten rule regarding some topics, ergo, they are taboo. When you post on one of these subjects people are afraid to respond for fear that they will be punished in some way. I have posted discussions on(what I think) some very interesting topics, and get very few or no response. Another reason could be that many of the MyLotters are not interested in giving any thought to the subject at hand; they simply want a quick answer that will earn them the fastest money. Lastly, I feel that there is a language barrier here in some cases. I don't know about you but I see this often. You can't respond intelligently to a discussion if you do not have a reasonable grasp of the language.
• United States
8 Jul 07
Some people are just here on My Lot to relax and have fun, and not take life too seriously. I don't think they want to be bothered with heavy topics. That's not good for those of us who love to post serious topics. Many of my best questions have gotten zero responses, while some of my most stupid no-brainer questions have become wildly popular. Go figure!
@2wicelot (2945)
5 Jul 07
I have noticed this too and i think i have some ideas why this happens. Sometimes discussions are started at the wrong time. It may have been started at a time when there are a few members online and it never got the desired responses to make it stay up. It may also be the member starting the discussions have few friends and it doesn't get the responses it deserves. It may also be because of the duplication, members who are interested in responding to the topic may have responded to other discussions. And may be it is just about luck.
@lexus54 (3572)
• Singapore
5 Jul 07
I'll add your reasons to what I've posted in response #31. I feel yr reasons are very valid. I really believe that once the response to a thread is slow or lacking for whatever reasons, the thread will quickly disappear out of sight, and out of sight means out of mind. I think it is natural for people to find threads to respond to from the links on the left, eg. hot topics, etc. and the probability of them locating a slow-responding thread will therefore be very low. In short, for a thread to do well, it has to start well in terms of responses. Then it will sustain itself.
1 person likes this
@2wicelot (2945)
5 Jul 07
I totally agree with you lexus54. If a discussion starts well, then it has a high chance of survival as it were. I also like to add I have noticed that some members don't respond to discussions once the response has been chosen. I think this is not very fair on their part after all this is not supposed to be a competition of any sort.
• United States
4 Jul 07
success is a journey and never a destination.. the road to sucess is the most important part... my father always said the years of struggle were the best for him.. maybe for him. i used to cringe when he told me..he retired when he was 65 and he said he wished he could have kept working..that was in 78 the year i started working at Ford..now i am retired..but when he told me that when i was forty.. i told him..i hope i never feel this way..and i am glad i don't ...i have nightmares that i am back to working my old job.lol..not a nice dream..but success is different to many different people..if my wife could get me to do the landscapeing and yard work..that would be success for her..but i would consider it a failure..lol Most people spend more time planning a two week vacation then in planning how they are going to spend the rest of their lives..so sad.
• United States
4 Jul 07
sorry i goofed..in 1978 i was only 33..retired at 62 but i did get married at 40...duh? july 12,,1985
@gradyslady (4054)
• United States
18 Sep 07
I think some people don't know how to respond, or that there's only one answer to it or something like that and whoever gets there first answers it.