This Weekend's Most Active Threads

Today I'll look at the most active threads over the weekend. On Saturday I created a new forum titled, "The DCUM Book Club". Posters have long been asking for a dedicated forum for book discussions. While such threads have been successful in the Entertainment forum, they tend to get buried in the discussions about celebrities and television shows. It is fitting that on the weekend of its debut, a thread from the forum would top the list of threads with the most replies.

Titled, "Name a popular book you didn't like", the thread was also second in number of views. The original poster explains that she wanted to discuss books that she didn't like and specifically singles out Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". It is a little disconcerting that in a forum created out of reverence for books, a thread about disliking books would lead. On the other hand, probably the only book thread I ever personally created was about not liking J. D. Vances's "Hillbilly Elegy". When I started that thread back in 2016, I felt a bit like a heretic because the book appeared to be receiving nothing but praise. I think my criticisms have held up and my skepticism has proven warranted. Moreover, I noticed that the book was mentioned several times in this thread as a book posters didn't like. So, I'm glad to see that my opinion is not as lonely as it seemed back then.

The thread that led in views over the weekend was titled, "Would you dump a friend who knew your spouse cheated and said nothing?" and posted in the "Relationship Discussion (non-explicit)". This thread, which was third in number of replies, is about the original poster feeling betrayed by a friend who knew the original poster's husband was cheating but didn't tell her. The original poster now wants nothing to do with the friend. I only skimmed a few posts in this thread and, as expected, saw posts saying the poster would dump the friend and those saying they would not. One poster wrote that unless it turned out that her husband was planning to leave her, she would be angry if a friend told her about cheating because she would rather not know in those circumstances.

Two threads were created this weekend criticizing Arlington County and its residents. The threads appear to have been started by different posters, but were very similar. One, titled, "Obnoxious Arlington parents vent" and posted in the "Elementary School-Aged Kids" forum was a leader in both number of views and replies. The original poster describes being shunned by other Arlington parents based on the school which her son attends, which the original poster says is not one of the "right" schools. Apparently many posters had already seen the other anti-Arlington thread so the original poster was immediately attacked as a troll. There were many obnoxious posts by posters obnoxiously denying that Arlington parents are obnoxious. Also, an apparent split between south and north Arlington parents emerged as south Arlington posters agreed that the northerners are obnoxious while also insisting that south Arlington residents are down to earth, humble, and kind.

A thread titled, "401k savings limit to increase in 2023" and posted in the "Money and Finances" forum was third in number of views, but only 10th in replies. The thread is about an increase in the contribution limit to various retirement plans. This increase was welcomed by several posters, but others pointed out that it only matters if you can afford it and most people can't. The "Money and Finances" forum has been haunted recently by a poster who insists on bragging about his brilliance and wealth and how stupid everyone else is. This poster made an appearance in this thread which then mostly turned to back and forths between that poster and others (who he described as "imbeciles"). I wish posters would just report this guy the first time he rears his head so that I could nip him in the bud before he completely takes over a thread.