The 20 most-read stories on Ars Technica in 2022
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
Interesting, eclectic mix of stories. Some, I surprisingly missed the first time around. Surprisingly, considering I basically live on Ars. 
Upvote
136
(138
/
-2)
2022 has been such a shit-show I'm honestly surprised to see the Spotify story making this list. That seems like forever ago!
Trying to keep up with the news generated by the biggest assholes of the year has been exhausting, and I'm just a news consumer! I'm truly sorry for the Tech Policy staff who must have aged five years since January.
Trying to keep up with the news generated by the biggest assholes of the year has been exhausting, and I'm just a news consumer! I'm truly sorry for the Tech Policy staff who must have aged five years since January.
Upvote
112
(116
/
-4)
faustshausuk
Ars Scholae Palatinae
Genuinely shocked at how Elon-free this list was, given the comment heat those articles draw. The range of articles is why I subscribe.
Upvote
261
(263
/
-2)
Thanks for the hard work everyone!
Happy holidays.
Next year prediction:
how ArsGPT will
Write all our articles for us going forward
/s obviously
Happy holidays.
Next year prediction:
how ArsGPT will
Write all our articles for us going forward
/s obviously
Upvote
60
(61
/
-1)
I'm waiting for the deathwatch list, that one is fun
Facebook? TikTok post-ban? Crypto?
Facebook? TikTok post-ban? Crypto?
Upvote
81
(82
/
-1)
Ars staff have repeatedly demonstrated with these year-end roundups that the most-commented-on stories are rarely the most read. There is, apparently, a big silent majority out there.
Upvote
254
(255
/
-1)
The World's Oldest Pants article made the cut. Kiona writes some of the most fascinating articles.
And, judging by comment count, it's surprising that a Musk story didn't make the list. Aurich frequently mentions that post count ≠ most read and this list seems to bear this out. (Edit: I see J. King already made this point.)
And, judging by comment count, it's surprising that a Musk story didn't make the list. Aurich frequently mentions that post count ≠ most read and this list seems to bear this out. (Edit: I see J. King already made this point.)
Upvote
68
(68
/
0)
Hear, hear! I'm always most stimulated by Ms. Smith's articles. I only wish there were more.
Upvote
38
(38
/
0)
My favorites were the ones where somebody wanted something that didn't exist they and went on and built it themselves:
Man who built ISP instead of paying Comcast $50K expands to hundreds of homes
NASA scientists say images from the Webb telescope nearly brought them to tears
Upvote
55
(56
/
-1)
The most commented on stories aren't even necessarily the ones commented on by most people.
The ones with thousands of comments are often controversies dominated by a small group of commenters going at it page after page.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are Webb stories with a fraction the comments of [insert Musk/Twitter article] but many more commenters participating.
Purely quantitative 'engagement' metrics are close to worthless for understanding anything.
Upvote
160
(161
/
-1)
It's almost as if those who post on the front page are equivalent to a rounding error when compared to the Ars readership as a whole. ; )
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote
51
(56
/
-5)
I thought there would be Twitter/Musk stories at the top, but a nice recap of interesting Ars stories. I actually remember reading and enjoying all of these.
But I’m guessing the “most commented” list will have more than a few Twitter-themed entries…
But I’m guessing the “most commented” list will have more than a few Twitter-themed entries…
Upvote
12
(17
/
-5)
As others have noted, expect the most-commented stories to look very different. However, a quick scan suggests this story will be higher on that list than any twitter-related stupidity. 30K comments!
It's almost as if ars' readership is not a monolith
Upvote
58
(59
/
-1)
To be honest, nearly all of the Musk-Twitter stories did really good traffic. People are definitely interested in reading about that saga. But none of them came close to making the top 20.
Upvote
102
(102
/
0)
Eric has been posting about him:
View: https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1605713087293710336
View: https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1606425220222435329
Which is why certain authors, certain topics, and articles from certain other websites keep on being posted here despite the noisy protests of the front page commenters.
Upvote
68
(69
/
-1)
To be fair, probably because new ones kept popping up every day, whenever Musk did another even bigger fuckup – I know I must have missed a few myself ;-)
Any idea how would it score if all of them since his "lavatory entry" into Twitter HQ were taken together as a whole?
Upvote
24
(30
/
-6)
A list of 20 articles out of the literally hundreds of articles in a year hardly calls for a 'wake-up call' to the editors. As with all sites that provide several articles a day to the readership, the variety you mention as a positive is what makes Ars my go-to site on a daily basis. I found the continuing saga of Musk antics compelling and important to be informed of since he is a very influential person on the world stage. I personally am grateful that Ars provided me with the ability to keep tabs on such a fascinating personality.
Edit- I wish the Ars staff and readership a happy and safe holiday and stay warm. It is bitterly cold outside my window,
Last edited:
Upvote
73
(78
/
-5)
We’re living through a historical moment. There’ll be no need to watch the documentaries or read the books about it later on.
Upvote
-19
(2
/
-21)
That doesn't make any sense.
At all. There's, very conservatively, seven articles a day (on average), so ~2300-2700+ articles a year. That means "the top 20" is less than one percent of the articles.
This gives us nothing about how much traffic the Musk articles did, only that they weren't in the top 1%. I'd guess they're definitely in the top 50%. That's just a guess.
Here's a pro tip: if they don't interest you, don't click them. That's sort of how this whole Internet thing generally works -- stuff only comes out of the tubes if you squeeze them just so. It's pretty rare for articles to just "holy shit, did that thing just open itself?" So rare, in fact, that that's happened like twice in my 30 years of reading stuff on computers.
Maybe your experience differs significantly? But, yeah, I'd guess the majority of people aren't forced to read anything, a la "A Clockwork Orange." Your eyelids are not likely held open with some mechanical device, and I very much doubt the kind of person who'd say "Read this or I'll kill this puppy" would pick Ars Technica as their "this."
Upvote
79
(86
/
-7)
Surely you jest. This is Ars Tesla, I mean Apple Technica, I mean ARS TECHNICA and every article must appeal to everyone.
</sarcasm>
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote
37
(40
/
-3)
AmanoJyaku
Ars Praefectus
The song we're familiar with is indeed a remake of a song about weed (Pass the Kouchie). But Pass the Dutchie was sung by kids and cleaned up, dutchie is short for Dutch oven. You're asking someone to pass you food.
Upvote
10
(13
/
-3)
The song we're familiar with is indeed a remake of a song about weed (Pass the Kouchie). But Pass the Dutchie was sung by kids and cleaned up, dutchie is short for Dutch oven. You're asking someone to pass you food.
Except..
It very much is in the popular consciousness now as being about weed. If you ask a teenager "what's a dutchie," they'll tell you it's a blunt, and they'll be right. They might tell you it's a joint, and they'll still be right, just, a little bit less.
Whether or not it was previously about food, it is now very much about herb.
I actually can give a citation on this one. Just asked daughter, 20, younger daughter, 17, neighbors's daughter, 19, and neighbors' younger daughter. Older pair (my kid, neighbor kid) and younger pair separately, so they weren't just all agreeing with each other. A dutchie is weed. They said "how lame are you that you didn't know that.?"
Last edited:
Upvote
47
(50
/
-3)
Wondering the same, but also wondering the same for when the most commented articles list comes out! It's got nothin on the Dmitri/Ukraine war thread, I'm sure, but I'd love to see how they stack up.
I saw a commenter lamenting the lack of a single megathread for Elon hijinks in the same vein as the Ukraine war thread, but that one arose very organically. Not something that's easy to reproduce in a social setting like this.
Upvote
15
(15
/
0)
AmanoJyaku
Ars Praefectus
If you listen to the song lyrics, they're talking about poverty. At one point, they actually say "what would you do if you got no food?"
As for the association with weed and blunts, that's a reference to Dutch Masters.
Upvote
5
(7
/
-2)
A Dutchie is also a type of donut, but you're not having mine!The song we're familiar with is indeed a remake of a song about weed (Pass the Kouchie). But Pass the Dutchie was sung by kids and cleaned up, dutchie is short for Dutch oven. You're asking someone to pass you food.
Upvote
9
(10
/
-1)
And we will probably keep it going for quite a while longer,As others have noted, expect the most-commented stories to look very different. However, a quick scan suggests this story will be higher on that list than any twitter-related stupidity. 30K comments!
It's almost as if ars' readership is not a monolith
Upvote
7
(8
/
-1)
"Most commented articles" isn't that compelling to me. Although far less prevalent here than in most comment forums, minor flame wars about tangential topics do occur, and occasionally consume outsized comment bandwidth by a small number of people.
"Most unique comment contributors" seems like it could be an interesting metric, though. Which articles inspired lurkers to overcome their social inertia enough to post a comment?
Upvote
59
(59
/
0)
I really enjoy these articles at the end of the year. I admit I did wonder if they'd create a separate Twitter round up because holy shit.
At least "System Preferences" is still an alias from Spotlight search. If that changes (and I'm too lazy to assign a tag, which is very possible), there's gonna be a riot.
Upvote
3
(3
/
0)
I would be interested to know how this list lines up against the list of 20 most commented articles, or is that the same thing?
I imagine that all 20 are just the never ending battle between the Pro Musk and Anti Musk coalitions. :-(
I imagine that all 20 are just the never ending battle between the Pro Musk and Anti Musk coalitions. :-(
Upvote
-16
(2
/
-18)