Wednesday's Most Active Threads

Yesterday two threads stood out of the pack in terms of number of replies. The first of these titled, "Taylor Swift is awful (and her music isn't even very good)" was posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. This thread also led in the number of views. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with "Swifties" knew where this thread was going. Even the original poster of the thread -- who based the post on a Daily Beast article -- expected the inevitable backlash. And, came it did. The thread racked up 9 pages of replies in less than a day. A quick look over the thread suggests that the discussion didn't turn as vitriolic as one might have expected, but rather was humorous at times and serious at times. Much of the thread seems to involve a comparison of Swift to Beyonce.

The second thread was posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. Titled, "Idaho Universities prohibited from referring or distributing birth control", the thread was only a couple posts behind the Swift thread in number of responses and may have actually led before I deleted a few inappropriate posts. This thread ties together a number of themes that have repeatedly occurred in the Colleges forum -- as well as other forums -- recently. Starting with warning about fallout from Idaho's abortion law which has been interpreted as prohibiting the universities and their health facilities from distributing birth control, the thread soon diverted into discussions of Catholic universities and abortion. There is a vocal group of posters in the College forum who rank access to women's reproductive health services near the top of factors when choosing a college or university. There is an equally vocal and active group who is convinced that priority is completely misplaced. The result when these two groups meet is a thread that leads the forum in replies.

Somewhat surprisingly, the thread with the second most number of views was nowhere near the top in number of replies. Posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture", a thread titled, "Jeff Bezos's ex wife, billionaire Mackenzie Bezos, is already divorcing her teacher husband" this thread was just a few views short of taking the top spot. I haven't read a single post in this thread and, therefore, have no idea what it is about other than what can be gleaned from the title (which provides the wrong surname for Mackenzie Scott). I can say that Jeff Bezos and Mackenzie Scott threads seem to generate a lot of engagement.