2 nights ago, legacyme3 and I were chatting for a while and one of the things that came up was whether his level of fame is still as high. I told him that I thought it was and that his popularity on this site is at around my level. I told him that I was convinced that he could post about anything and still get replies, likes and views. I also had him do an experiment with me.

The experiment involved him and I both making stupidly pointless threads. I bet him that he would get more Likes, Views and Ratings (or at least beat me in 2 of those categories). The rule was that we couldn't tell anyone about the threads and we couldn't post in them.

He went on to make the Don't Click This Thread thread and I went on to make the Store thread. Now that it's been nearly 48 hours since we made the threads, let's see the results.

Post Rating (not overall thread rating)
Don't Click This Thread: 5
Store: 7

Replies
Don't Click This Thread: 17
Store: 7

Views
Don't Click This Thread: 281
Store: 178

So it turns out he won in the majority of the categories and this concludes that he is in fact still more famous than I am. He got more Dislikes than me (I received none) but this is most likely due to users thinking that I can see who dislikes posts (which I can but I don't since that's too much work to look up).

legacyme3 : Congrats, you win. Well technically I won since I predicted that you would win and you predicted that I would win. So I was right

It might be a bit misleading to say I thought my popularity was low. It's more accurate to say, I feel, that we both were lamenting our status, since people are hesitant to approach both of us. We're both people with big names, at the very least, and we both wish people would take more time to know who we are as people (we also wish we had time to take this step ourselves!)

I found this experiment incredibly interesting. It went beyond my expectations. I did make my thread in General Chat, whereas David made his in Cafe Corner, which "may" have skewed the results, but I don't think it makes a ton of difference, either way.

It also gave us both a chance to just be silly for once. I'm always silly, but David works hard, and doesn't get a chance to just let loose. A lot of people don't realize this, since he doesn't get to chat with individual members, but he's hilarious. I've gotten to know David a bit, and consider him a friend.

I'm most surprised that I managed to get so many more views that David, considering he named his title "Store" (When he made the post, he actually thought it might have been cheating to name it as such, since it was misleading, but I told him it was hilarious, so implored him to keep it). Anything named "Store" should attract a ton of attention.

One thing that also surprises me, is how many people responded to my joke thread. You guys have way too much time on your hands to indulge me.

I had a feeling something like this was going on. I didn't realize it was a competition, but I felt like you guys were experimenting how easily it was for the two of you to obtain likes / replies to pointless threads.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not insightful all that often, but I wish I had said something sooner just so I could genuinely say the phrase "called it!" lol

(Oh, and congrats to both of you for winning in your own way ^^)

Davideo7 : and legacyme3 : rofl! I thought it might've been something like that! XD =P One of my friends saw your threads and literally asked me, "Who put him up to this? oO;;" XD But then they remembered all of your awesome April Fools' Day jokes and for Leggy, the games in a certain part of Town, so... lol

But we have to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. Leggy posted Click Bait and you didn't, so this isn't exactly a good measure of who is actually "more famous." oO;; Now if you had posted the same thing or something similar (e.g. a thread called "Can't Touch This"), then we might be able to make some better comparisons...

Otherwise, this was pretty funny and I do think a lot of people kept hanging around just to see what was going on because of it. Great job to the two of you and hope to continue to see more awesomeness unfold!

legacyme3 : It is nice to take a break once in a while from work. Chatting with users is always fun and I love being able to unwind and be a little crazy from time to time. Users usually don't get to see that side of me, they're mostly use to seeing the robotic site leader lol.

I think we both learned a lot from this experiment. The thing I took out of it the most was that you and I can do dumb things and still be respected which is great. If an ordinary user made the same type of threads that we did, they most likely would not have had the same results.

It was fun chatting. It brought back memories of when we use to chat quite often years ago. I appreciate the kind words


Mynamescox44 : I think we did a good enough job making the threads not seem affiliated with each other.


Yuna1000 : His was more click bait but mine was still click bait since "Store" could imply that I'm now selling stuff on Vizzed or that I updated the Vizzed Market. One thing that did give me the advantage was the fact that more users have added me to their friends list (2342) compared to adding legacyme3 (297) which means more users would have seen a notification of my thread.

It's always fun to create suspense and to leave users wondering what's going on. Random acts of randomness are always fun.

Well then, that was not expected. With everyone saying "I thought it was something like that!" I feel really, really...oblivious. Lol Still I knew something was up with David making that thread, but I just thought maybe someone had asked him to make a silly thread or something.

I do think this experiment showed us that rank and status affect how our posts are viewed (you guys get a ton of likes and a new member would get a warning and the thread would be closed). And in a way that's a good thing.
I also felt like it breathed some life into the forums seeing you two making silly threads that were honestly pretty dumb but fun. It showed everyone that this place is about enjoying yourself, and silly is okay.

Also I'm totally the most famous user here...after David...and Leggy...and Jordan and geeo and Vanelan and..

I quit. This just got depressing.

Davideo7 :
legacyme3 :

"If an ordinary user made the same type of threads that we did, they most likely would not have had the same results."

I'm afraid that I'm going to have to disprove this theory as I conducted my own little experiment not long ago with similar results.

Minions - 12 replies with 216 views and a rating of 14, and it wasn't even in a main forum. It was initially an experiment similar to the ink splotch test where they ask you what you see. It's almost a meme to hate minions, so by posting the most vague thread on the subject as possible, I thought I would see a whole lot of different responses. I had no idea that the thread would turn out to be nothing but single and double word replies, so that was certainly interesting.

If this were solely a vote for who had best title, my vote would go to David because I actually thought it was related to either his ebay store or the vizzed market. I wasn't going to click a thread that says not to click it (I can just click the reply button).

I was confused for about a short couple minutes after reading what it said "I went to the store the other day" lol

Eirinn : Ikr? XD My first thought was that this could have been a Patron's request (to see Davideo7 make a thread with only one line, and it didn't matter what the subject was). lol

Awww... Cheer up! Most of us are still behind you on that list too... I mean, there are only at least 30+ staff members (and former staff members) and even more Vizzed Elites and- ... ... Okay, going to stop now before I get depressed too. XD

Yuna1000 : A Patron request is exactly what I was thinking it was. Lol Someone needs to become a $100 Patron and use their hours for something like this. xD

m0ss-

You aren't really a normal member either.

Anyone of the local mod rank could probably do what we did. It's not that, that we're trying to say.

It's amusing we were able to get the response we did within 48 hours (not even) of our posts. Had we continued the experiment, it's likely we would have gotten more than we did. Now that the cat is out of the bag, it is significantly more likely to lead to skewed results.

Also, you may not have made your post in a main forum, but you made your post in a joke forum, basically. Nothing against mrfe. But the forum basically only lives because of joke threads.

I don't feel you've actually done anything except further prove our point. A normal user, that is, someone without power, could not get the results we got, at least, with them remaining positive in nature.

Now, if say Jygin (first user I found on the new posts page that wasn't staff, not picking on them) was the one making that sort of post, I think it would hold more credence, honestly. It would have been interesting to have gotten someone like that in on our experiment, but as it was, I was already fearful people would connect me and David. I didn't want them to have an easier time making the connection.

Eirinn :

Don't feel too bad. A lot of people who say that are probably just protecting/boosting their egos. Not one person messaged me, asking what was up, or to say anything about it. People might have had suspicions but I view that as a totally different thing than knowing something is up.

I think, it's honestly very likely that you were about as knowledgable about the experiment as any user not named myself or David. That's not to degrade anyone who has stated that they had suspicions, because it's not like we went to great lengths to hide anything, we made it relatively obvious. Had we wanted to hide it, we would have snuck it in during peak hours, rather than waiting till around midnight, one of the deadest times of the day to do so.

I just think a lot of people are pretty likely to pat themselves on the backs even if they have no reason to haha.

Yuna1000 :

I believe we were pretty even, honestly. The biggest point in my favor was the fact I posted in a more busy forum, which happens to be a double edged sword. If my post fell off the top of General Chat, for example, it would be extremely unlikely anyone would bump me up, while Cafe Corner, a deader forum, by comparison, is more likely to keep him at the top, even if no one posts in the thread (which is why David, I believe had only 100 less views, despite having so many less replies).

The biggest point in David's favor, I believe was the title of his thread, which I found incredibly clever. With the Market expanding recently, it would not be a leap to think he was doing something related to the store, which would make you curious. I allowed it, because I thought it canceled out the advantage I had (we had never agreed on which forums to post our threads in, and I posted mine first. I had assumed we would both be in General Chat), that I never wanted.

The idea behind our posts was to just be silly. It had the side effect of us both generating click bait, unintentionally. It's just the type of humor we both like to exhibit, so it doesn't shock me that we had the response we did in such a short time, in that regard.

I do agree on it not being a measure of "fame". When it comes to "fame", I am well aware that David is the most famous of the two of us, and that's not something I concern myself with in the slightest. A couple years ago, he was eligible, and the community voted for him in the community awards. I think this is more likely a measure over which of us generates the higher community involvement, and who has the best pulse on the community, to know what they are more likely to respond to.

-----

I know that was a lot of words, for something that doesn't matter. But as someone who likes to pretend to be a social scientist, I like to leave all my observations, hypothesis, and methods on the table, because I believe that's the best way for those outside the experiment to best learn.

I'd say the greatest lesson I learned from all of this, is that it is important to keep everybody entertained. Looking at the response this thread has generated, and the responses our threads, thusly, have generated, it is very easy to draw the conclusion that in the grand scheme of things, while David and I are but two total people, we are able to generate a lot of activity by ourselves.

A lot of people, over the years, have asked where the activity has gone, and why it isn't as active as it was like 4 years ago. This makes me believe it's really as simple as what we have discovered through our threads. There is less silliness, there is less community engagement from members who generate engagement (like myself, and I apologize), and overall, it leads to a less active board.

Obviously, losing any one active poster would have the same effect, but the past couple of years has seen both David, and myself, slacking in posting.

Here are some numbers:

In the past three years, I have posted 4258 times (in my first two full years, I posted roughly 18k-20k times), with about 1/3 of my posts in a rented forum that only trusted+ members can view, something that is a very niche group of people.

David, on the other hand 11,376 times (which is almost three times as much), but 3000 of those are related to contests, something a small segment of the site uses, around 1,500 of those are in forums that even I cannot presently view, 1,000 are annoucement related, and 1,000 are in the Treasure Can (and about other competitions). When you boil it down to it, David has made maybe about 4,500 posts that are not about competitions, site upkeep, or staff roles in the past three years. Those are important posts, of course, but for site engagement, they can lead to a bit of stagnation.

I'm not blaming David at all. On the contrary, David does what he can do. I theorize that if users like me posted more, we would see more of a boom in activity. All you need to do is look at how many posts David and I were able to generate from two total threads, in a short period of time, and remember that it doesn't take very much to double/triple/septuple that output. There was a time where I posted 5 or 6 threads in a given day.

Community engagement is a HUGE part of activity, and I'm hoping we all realize that now.

Rant over.

Legacy cheated here using clickbait in his title. Youtubers do this kind of thing all the time to up their views.

Plus, how do we know he didn't refresh the page 100 times? Did you track unique viewers?

Sure he is popular and all but I don't see how this proves anything other then that clickbaiting works really well.

Hmm.....I have been watching but didn't post in either threads. I know I was too busy as of why which I won't say about....I know David is really funny. How? I remember my past talks with him in pm to do with it. So it kind of helped jogged my memory since I have forgotten sadly. Anyways it is nice to be silly once in a while helps to relive the stress of work that is normally put into the site.

Anyone could do this if they tried. ^-^

Davideo7 : Ah, I see... It was Hidden Click Bait... Brilliant! Thank you for explaining it! Is it bad if I tell you that since no one confirmed anything for the longest time, I had actually begun to think it was a special status update about a Store you really went to (albeit a status update that was really rushed)? lol After a while, I was half expecting to see an Edit with pictures of the "Store" in question. XD

legacyme3 : I wonder what would have happened if Davideo7 had called his thread, "Battle Arena." =P I get the feeling that he could pretty much put anything for that one line, and people would still click on it. XD If he wanted a serious thread though, all he'd have to say is, "I just remembered the Battle Arena. Anyone still interested in this?" lol

VizzedFan2016 : Please refer to Davideo7's and Leggy's posts, in which they explain how both of them ended up unintentionally generating click baits so they were pretty much even. As for refreshing the pages... I would love to see that, actually. XD Leggy and Davideo7 refreshing the pages (like a boss!) to see who ultimately wins. XD Too bad they've got better things to do with their time. lol

Interesting  Seems like a lot more goes on here in Vizzed than I thought lol. We'll have to keep my eyes open next time. Good job to both... I guess lol

Let's be honest: The names of the threads are going to have an impact on what happens within the threads. If you put something uncreative and regular like "Store" it doesn't matter who posts it, nothing is going to happen there. Or at least very little.

Now you create a thread called "Don't push the Big Red Button," and guess what? People flock to that. That's fun, it's cool, it's calling us out as users and challenging us.

I think the names of the threads gave an unfair advantage against Davideo. If they were both hum-drum like "Camping" and "Fishing" maybe there's an argument. But in this case, and I'm a marketing guru so I understand the importance of word selection, the names changed the outcomes. If Davideo created the "Don't open this thread" and Legacyme created "Store" it would be numbers in the opposite places.

The content was basically the same but Legacy's thread had more aura and fun around it. That's why it won out.

Davideo7 : Maybe next time you can make threads like "WARNING: VIRUSES" or "My Credit Card Info" you will win next time.

I more or less agree with ghostbear here. The "Don't click this" thread has a clickbait title so I think david was at a disadvantage. Something just named "store" on the other hand is less likely to be viewed and replied to. In fact many people might not click it because they think it has to do something with the vizzed market being updated which might not seem very entertaining to read about at first glance. I personally didn't even notice it until this thread was made. I feel like the don't click this thread also had a more fun aura to it with some of the replies that made people go back to it. If the opposite person made each thread it would've likely had the opposite result and probably been completely one sided.

Leggy is still one of the most well known users on the site but I wouldn't say he's famous like he used to be as he isn't really too visible outside of the IT rented forum anymore. While those who have been around for a while definitely know about him, he probably won't stand out much to newer users.

I was actually thinking I should trash that thread cuz it just looked like some junk thread.

A user of this : You actually wanted to suggest, "WARNING: FREE VIRUSES!" right? =P j/k (Sorry, couldn't help it. XD )