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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Papas Fritas on Tuesday March 04 2014, @04:56PM

    by Papas Fritas (570) on Tuesday March 04 2014, @04:56PM (#10746) Journal

    One of the things that I have noticed over the years is that Slashdot likes to lead off the day at about 8 am EST with a very strong story that sets the tone for the day. I called this the "anchor" story for the day and I have noticed that when editors post a strong anchor story that gets a lot of comments, the rest of the day seems to go well and there are lots of comments on the following stories. 8am is where you want to post your strongest story - one that is get to get a lot of comments.

    I think this must be due to the fact that a lot of readers come to slashdot first thing in the morning after they get to work and if they see something interesting story first thing they will comment and this gets the ball rolling and they may often come back later in the day to see the comments on the anchor story.

    The goal should be to allow a story to get a "critical number of comments". If I see story that only has 4 or 5 comments I'm not going to look at it. If I see one that has 30, 40, or 50 comments then I'm going to take a look at it because I know that is one that has interested other readers and there are likely to be some insightful comments. If a story hasn't garnered more than half a dozen comments by half an hour in, then it's time to post another one on the hour.

    During the day about one story an hour is about right but I have noticed that on slow days, the editors can get more comments on the stories by slowing the story flow down to one every 75 minutes or 90 minutes.

    The same thing takes place during the night. There are fewer readers at night so the story flow needs to slow down to one every two or three hours so that stories can garner a critical number of comments.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by glyph on Wednesday March 05 2014, @04:14AM

    by glyph (245) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @04:14AM (#11163)

    Who's 8AM are we talking about here, GMT?

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by isostatic on Wednesday March 05 2014, @10:08AM

      by isostatic (365) on Wednesday March 05 2014, @10:08AM (#11246) Journal

      No he's talking about us east coast time, as only America matters.