RVR: A Measure of Thread Quality

[MrPartickler]

The Reply-View Ratio (RVR) is a number between 0 and 1 is defined as the total number of thread responses divided by the total number of thread views. It proposes to quantify the compelling nature of a topic or thread, and it is <i>one</i> of six measures of Thread Quality. It is also the simplest, quality-driven thread observable that can be derived from the thread listing.

The six Thread Quality Metrics (TQMs) required include:
1) the Reply-View Ratio
2) the total number of unique views,
3) the number of unique respondents,
4) the number of on-topic responses,
5) average response length (number of words), and
6) the integrated area under the <i># of Responses vs. Time</i> curve, where the comparison is only valid over spans of equal elapsed existence times.

Example: A "good" RVR for the Discussion section seems to be approximately <i>0.1</i>. (HalTickling's Abortion thread currently has an RVR of <i>0.128</i>.) However, many threads in the Humor section have RVRs of <i>0.2</i> or higher. (One by ShiningIce currently has an RVR as high as <i>0.346</i>.) Also, the high-scoring humor threads generally seem to last longer, which usually indicates a higher overall Thread Quality "score."

Note: I know, I know...the humor threads aren't exactly my idea of "quality" either. Wantonly controversial/offensive threads probably have better TQMs too. Alas, herein lies the difficulty in my effort to conquer...er...I mean to make sense of the world! 😀

Anyone else out there care to formulate a way to quantify any otherwise completely subjective TMF features? or perhaps care to expand on this one? or prove there's the tickling equivalent to Fermat's last theorem??? lol

 

[milagros317]

I wrote a story entitled "The Session (F/m)". You can find it here:
http://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12717

As of just now, it has 17,802 views and 2 responses.

2/17802 is approximately 0.000112347

I made one of the two responses myself, so maybe that ratio should be cut in half.

Mistress Zara, the main character in the story, made the other response. So maybe it should be cut to 0.

Does that make it the worst thread of all time?😀

 

[milagros317]

Even worse: The copy of "The Session (F/m)" which is posted in my subforum in the TMF Story Archives has 377 views and 0 responses. Harrrummph!

 

[The Pianist]

What about Biscuit's ledgendary "Early Experiences" Thread. It may only be nearing 900 replies (I think) but until they updated the forum to version 2.3.0... the number of views was stuck at 2^16 - 1 (the update removed the view limit counter).

Doesn't a thread with such a huge following rate hugely even though not everyone has posted in it?

 

[MrPartickler]

Advanced Thread Quality Rating...

milagros and The Pianist make some interesting points.

The Story Archive is one example of where the RVR (alone) is a poor measure of Thread Quality. This is because, almost by definition, more people visit to read the stories than to post. (My guess is that if you find a story thread with more than 200 views and an RVR of 0.2 or higher it must be a positively exceptional story--compelling many who had NO previous intention of commenting to do so.)

In milagros' example, the number of <i>unique</i> views (TQM #2) may take up the slack, but it's a much more difficult number to determine by for obvious reasons. In fact, the Story Archive may be an example of a place where the raw total number of views <i>may be</i> more relevant. It's certainly a qualitative measure of interest. However, total number of views is generally never a reliable quantitative measure for two primary reasons:

1) The same people often revisit a thread to check for new comments/feedback. This is particularly true when they've posted or responded already themselves.

2) The original poster or any other respondents may be checking their own write-up to edit it. (I've done this plenty myself.)

Perhaps if there were a good way to measure the number of times an original post/story gets RE-read, that might be a great TQM #7 to add to the list. It would likely bolster any story's quality score significantly.

The Pianist made a good point about the "Early Experiences" story thread. Note, however, that it contains on-topic, and substantive (i.e., non-fluff) responses from many unique visitors and has a incredibly looong active lifetime. Hence, it likely has reasonably high TQMs #2, #3, #4, #5, & #6 and ONLY has a low RVR--which, again, we should expect for stories. (Note that we also should expect a lot of repeat-visits to this thread since there are undoubtedly tons of respondents checking for updates/feedback.) In fact, from what I've seen (i.e., without doing any actual tedious quantification 😀 ) this thread may have the highest overall Thread Quality score out there. I'd say this thread would definitely be in the running for top dog.

...barring some of the "Humor" threads of course 🙄 lol

 

[milagros317]

One more question: Is the acronym you use, TQM, purposely identical to that of Total Quality Management?

 

[MrPartickler]

One more question: Is the acronym you use, TQM, purposely identical to that of Total Quality Management?

Actually, it's purely (and nicely) coincidental....but a good observation! 🙂

 

[AffectionateDan]

Talk about you blatant bids for people to "Go Read My Stories"!

I wrote a story entitled "The Session (F/m)". You can find it here:
http://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12717

As of just now, it has 17,802 views and 2 responses.

2/17802 is approximately 0.000112347

I made one of the two responses myself, so maybe that ratio should be cut in half.

Mistress Zara, the main character in the story, made the other response. So maybe it should be cut to 0.

Does that make it the worst thread of all time?😀

Even worse: The copy of "The Session (F/m)" which is posted in my subforum in the TMF Story Archives has 377 views and 0 responses. Harrrummph!

Ha! Wish I'd thought of it! 😀