What counts as "engagement" on a thread?

[SwedishEdith]

Is it just opening one and reading or is it only if you post?

I'm conscious of all the fake posts now and the ones designed to cause faux outrage so lots of responses.

If I open and scroll an obviously made up post, is that "engagement" for any kind of data stats purposes?

I apologise because I know I'm missing the point of your question and openly admit I'm not quite sure why you are asking it.

But. I did want to pick up on the point you made about some of the threads having a huge number of responses. Often within a very short time of them being first posted.

There seems such a huge imbalance lately : threads with hundreds of replies and many many threads that get few or no replies and seem, at least to me, genuine. And are often cries for help or advice.

Nowadays I quite often avoid the threads with hundreds of replies.

I can't help but feel this imbalance is largely as a result of MN strategies of late which have actively tried to direct posters to the most popular threads.
And I think it's to the detriment of the site.

I think your observation is linked to mine. Threads where the OP either never returns or pops back once despite there being 100s of posts. Who are these OPs? Are they mn generated to increase the perception of engagement? And is this all linked to the likely imminent sell-off of this site?

Which was making me wonder what counts as "engagement"? You only know a thread is bollocks after opening it but is opening it engagement? Or do you need to post?

Hello @SwedishEdith thanks for your question.

Threads appear in Active based on the number of posts and in Trending based on number of views.

We don’t generate threads or posters to inflate activity and threads attract different levels of response for lots of reasons, including how relatable or emotive the issue is, and that has always existed on the site to some degree.

Thanks @BeckyAMumsnet So just opening a post will help push it towards Trending which then, possibly, leads to more posts. Thanks for the clarification.

Its a good question OP

I have very few threads that people have engaged with!!

I dont take it personally!