Why make both percentages higher ?

a quarter of the way through this post and found I couldn't be bothered....

...I think it's more like 78%.

Anyone else noticed that 75& of posts are now like essays?.I think some of them are trying to get noticed as writers by David H and Mark E and are looking for jobs with The Word

... Alas I, like countless others, suffer from a rare and debilitating condition known as Compulsive Typing Disorder. Left near a keyboard for more than 25 seconds, we are unable to restrain ourselves from gushing out 1,000 words on a random topic. I mean, sure, there are treatments but there's only so much genito-electro shock therapy one man can endure.

Over the last couple of weeks, it's getting rare for a thread to receive even ten replies. Just have a look to the right of your screen. At the time of writing, the most popular topic of the past week has 30 replies, but the tenth most popular thread of the last month has 74 posts.

In short, it's all gone a bit quiet really.

PS - On 6Music, Lauren Laverne just uttered the words, "It's nine minutes to Lamb". Has a more terrifying prospect ever been spoken? I interpret that as "It's nine minutes until you change the station."

The total number of posts is about the same - although generally these things ebb and flow and change shape and diversify and some people leave and more join in and other factors come into play like the day of the week and the time of day and whether it's summer or winter and if it's summer how warm it is outside and whether or not people are on holiday.

As for 'lead topics', we kind of do this already - we can make posts 'sticky' (in which case they become fixed at the top of the blog homepage, and newer contributions are placed below them) or add them as highlights to the box at the top of the site homepage. I wouldn't really want it to become more complicated than this - at the moment it's a reasonable balance between drawing attention to the best contributions and giving everyone a fair crack of the whip.

I think it works fine. It has been warm lately - one should be outside enjoying it, not writing bollocks on the internet (grabs hat and heads for door)

...the front page of this blog and all I see is enthusiasm. Who cares if someone wants to write an essay. It’s content with effort behind it. If it doesn’t interest you, then you don’t have to read it. A few days from now it will be sliding off the front page.

A perennial problem with internet communities is that established members, who often joined a website early and have adopted it as their home, develop a misguided sense of ownership that manifests as unwritten rules and snide comments directed at new posters. In reality it’s the fresh blood that keeps online forums from stagnating and getting too cliquey.

I like the civil tone of this website. There are other message boards linked to music magazines where the core membership has long since lost respect for their hosts and for each other. They’re not pleasant places to visit.

which isn't a bad score at the moment. I mean, have you SEEN the weather outside?

Basically Brother Blast is simply approximating Pareto's 80 / 20 law which states that 80% of effects come from 20% of the causes. Or in simpler terms, when doing a job in the time it takes to complete you'll spend 20% of the time doing 80% of it and the remaining 20% of the task will take 80% of the time. But it has wider applications than that.

95% of the job will take 95% of the time.
The remaining 5% will take another 95% of the time...

Very true sometimes.

of us are interested in the content on this site I dont understand why you wasted your time in submitting the blog. I disagree with your figures and have to say that the site is thought provoking, funny and interesting. Yes the guys who produce the mag make contributions but they are merely members of a community and all newcomers should be made to feel welcome. No-one will be interested in every single blog posted but surely that doesnt mean the site should be dismantled. There has been some fantastic discussion over the time I have been contributing and long may it continue. Personally I wasnt interested in the Radiohead feature in this months issue but that doesnt mean that I will unsubscribe - however I may do if you feature Coldplay or U2 next month!!!!!!

Perhaps some folders or directories could be used on the blog as a means of filtering the stuff a little better. Personally I couldn’t care less what variety of tracks you listened to on the way to work. The naval gazing essayists can have their own area all to themselves too. It's getting a bit too self-indulgent for my liking.

...that now the good weather has kicked in, we should switch to British Summertime Clichés. So, the ubiquitous and honourable "I'll get my coat" should, until September, change to "I'll get my hat". See Twangothan's trailblazing remark above.

Hat. Another strand.
(Guilty of indulging myself to the hilt in the damp and chilly waters of this site far more frequently than is wise or sensible)

What a terrible pun...

Your 80% crap could include my 20% quite interesting. After all, there have been rants and raves about the Radiohead content in this months issue, but I love Radiohead.

It's all part of life's rich pageant, innit.

I'll get me trunks and snorkle...

...I'd posit that the remaining 37% is interesting and that is a good thing.

In order to get a lot of people replying to his post, he's been controversial. He won't catch me out making his number of replies high.....

One person’s boring post is another person’s interesting one. The 75% figures come from the National Guesswork Authority I presume. And I don’t think you can necessarily judge how “interested” people are in a post by how many replies it gets: some topics simply lend themselves more to responses than others. And how long does it take to skim through a post and decide whether you’re interested in it or not? A few seconds. I look at this blog every day and post on it regularly, but I doubt if I spend more than about five to ten minutes a day doing so. Far less than say reading a newspaper. It’s a friendly, entertaining, interesting blog so let’s leave it exactly as it is.

In either direction. Mr Backwards7 for example is not known for the brevity of his contributions and yet his posts are always good value.

While some long posts can cause one to glaze over somewhat, it doesn't exactly ruin one's life and it's what the 'scroll down' function was invented for.

I operate a "can I be arsed" filter - sometimes I can be arsed to read long posts, other times not. Sometimes I can be arsed to read other people's current faves (and frequently find something interesting or get my memory jogged about a lost gem) - sometimes I can't. I don't need anything technical to organise this - I like the way it is, a long list of organically grown ramblings, and I read them or not depending on whether I can be arsed or not. Works perfectly! Try it!

...indeed there was a mammoth one that might still be running. They can be a useful facility and indeed have been for me in the past. But I must confess, I too have tended to glaze my eyes over at the mammoth topics in recent times. Perhaps it's the accompanying strain of university essays I've been doing, but I kind of like this site to be a break from that!

I haven't done too many topics here myself; I just like to contribute to ongoing threads.

Agreed on the nastiness on certain other music magazine forums; there was one I signed up to but never posted on due to the amount of in-jokes between long-standing members and arguing I observed on there. This blog has not got close to that!

...is compulsory. We're free to skip when we want and gambol where we like.

all the best in the Play offs - if they make it back to the championship they will face my team Birmingham City who were sadly relegated yesterday. Given the history between the 2 clubs I can then go round singing 'I predict a riot'. There is probably 98 percent of you not interested in this blog so I guess I fucked the percentages up!!

... which 75% is of no interest to which 75% of the readership?

75% of commentators to the guardian music blogs all appear to be ex music journalists trying to maintain their sanity, whilst also stating how much better it was in their day.

I'm new here and new generally - these days, why not just start YOUR OWN web-site if you want to make a name for yourself?

It's very easy to be controversial - very hard to be boring, but I manage it quite well!

or are people taking this post far too seriously?

63% are taking it either a little bit too seriously or EXACTLY seriously enough!

I have just come back from holiday from the Highlands , and I´m a wee bit lost. What´s all this with statistics ? Where´s the music, the popular culture, the lighthearted culture exhanges ?
Lies , Damn lies and statistics.

That Blast is a trouble maker

I'm 1%interested Guv.

...in the field of human communication has so much been said by so few for so long...

...in the field of human communication has so much been said by so few for so long...

Sorry about the repost - slight problem typing.
Guess it proves my point though...