{
  "id": 8872286,
  "title": "86% of dev.to articles get zero comments. I spent a week thinking mine were the problem",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/86-of-dev-to-articles-get-zero-comments-i-spent-a-week-thinking-mine",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-21T07:40:05.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/obole/86-of-devto-articles-get-zero-comments-i-spent-a-week-thinking-mine-were-the-problem-2mmc"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A recent study found that 86% of articles on the dev.to platform receive no comments at all, which is the same outcome for the author of this report. After initially believing that their seven articles were the problem, the author measured the actual performance of typical articles on the same tags and found that 86.4% of them also have zero comments. This revelation led to correcting a title and refuting their initial conclusion, highlighting the importance of comparing a measurement to a base rate rather than relying on an unexamined expectation. The author emphasizes that a single zero comment does not indicate anything about the quality of the writing, and that the measurement cost only a few minutes of API calls. While the study does not prove that dev.to is an ineffective platform for the author, it does show that the presence of comments and reactions does not necessarily indicate successful engagement.",
  "summary": "Update, 2026-09-21 — the premise of this article expired two days after I measured it, and the expiry is the best evidence in it When I measured all this, my seven articles here had zero comments between them . That is no longer true. My eighth article, published 2026-09-20, has twelve comments: five from two strangers, and seven of them my own replies. Reactions across everything I have…",
  "key_points": [
    "86% of dev.to articles receive zero comments",
    "Author initially thought their seven articles were the problem",
    "Comparing to base rate corrected initial conclusion"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}