Feature on MN that shows how many people are reading a post?

[HRTlibido]

I saw this mentioned recently in another post, but I've never noticed it. Do I have to enable it somewhere?

I can see it on the browser but not the app. Perhaps it’s that.

Ditto, browser on phone. Can't see the point of it tbh.

I don't understand the point of it tbh.

If anything it puts me off reading a thread because it makes me feel like a sheep who is just looking at it because lots of other people are.

I read threads because I'm interested in the title or the subject or to see if I'm interested in them, not because they are popular.

Why would we want to know that?

Morning, @HRTlibido.

Yes, the viewing count is a new feature we're trialling but it's not on all discussions so that's why you're not seeing it consistenly. The idea was to give users a quick look at how busy a thread is and which conversations are most active in order to encourage people to get involved in threads across the boards.

We're keen to hear feedback on it though, so do let us know how you're finding it.

How disheartening for posters starting a thread hoping for advice on a serious subject, to watch all the attention race to some AI generated rage bait …

I don't understand this because it comes over that you are encouraging posters to become involved on threads where there is already a lot of interest. Whereas I feel you should be encouraging people to reply to OPs who have had very few, or even no, replies.

I agree.

Mumsnet’s USP is that it is not like other discussion websites. Why try to lose this?

It does seem to be all the drama ones that have a lot of viewers.

It makes no sense.

Why does anyone care how many people are viewing it... what are you hoping to achieve with the popularity contest?

What would it matter if a thread has 1 or 100 viewers at that moment in time? What is your "this is a successful thing we've implemented" measure. How is it achieving anything more than showing is the number of replies?

Surely you'd do better by closing Zombies?

Personally, I generally avoid those posts that have anywhere from 100- 1,000 posts. I haven't seen the benefit to them at all. To me, it's a place where hundreds of viewers post their views, and really, who cares?

It's like you have to post, run, forget and move on, and to me, it's like talking to a brick wall; who's going to read it anyway? Not the poster above or below, or even the OP (if there is one) when there's literally hundreds of posts.
I've found it interesting to read the first maybe 20 or so posts, then skip the pages to the end, and read how much the comments have morphed, as if no one by then has even read the OP, and and from what I've read, it can be quite wild and OTT by then.

Having said that, the posts in Chat typically receive less interest and less posts, which I've noticed now and feel badly about.

At least though you can be somewhat assured that someone is reading the posts, hopefully the OP if it's in support of their post.

It's really good to read the engagement of the OP with the posters on their OP, I generally find the posters on Chat to be kind and supportive, helpful and humourous with their well-thought out posts of encouragement, gained from experience.
I do realise though, there has to be something for everyone on a large site like Mumsnet.

Personally, I generally avoid those posts that have anywhere from 100- 1,000 posts. I haven't seen the benefit to them at all. To me, it's a place where hundreds of viewers post their views, and really, who cares?

It's like you have to post, run, forget and move on, and to me, it's like talking to a brick wall; who's going to read it anyway? Not the poster above or below, or even the OP (if there is one) when there's literally hundreds of posts.
I've found it interesting to read the first maybe 20 or so posts, then skip the pages to the end, and read how much the comments have morphed, as if no one by then has even read the OP, and and from what I've read, it can be quite wild and OTT by then.

I agree with this @Autonomouse

I'm not so sure about your point about the Chat forum though. In the past I've had some horrible experiences on Chat where posters have ganged up on me and been very unpleasant. And I've found it very cliquish. Not so much recently I admit but i'm always quite wary of posting on Chat because I very much feel an outsider on that forum. Which I suppose shows how every user's experience of MN is different.

@Howtogetthrough I'm sorry you've found Chat to be not the best experience, I'm glad you said it was not recently, because I've not been on MN for long; a little more than a year I think.
That would upset me too, and I'm actually sorry I quoted your post, I did it only to support what I felt was a similar feeling toward the posts that gain so much traction and have literally hundreds of replies by posters.
It wasn't to reply to or single your post out :) and again, I'm sorry for your feeling of being an outsider, that's not a good feeling.

I shall be wary of this now that you have drawn my attention to it.