Does it matter?

I'm not sure what you'd need to know such a thing for, but there's an ID in the URL... (this may change after the forum migration though)

Dennis

If your asking about the how many times a thread has been read, look at the original post on the first page. Right under the post on the left side is a number and next to it says reads. That shows you how many times a tread has been read. As I type this out it is 36 for this thread.

Jack

Those numbers are needed at least for now

Chris,

Think of a website as a bunch of files inside a file cabinet. This thread is one piece of paper, inside a folder, inside the file cabinet.  The web address above is the pathway to get to that particular piece of paper.

• https is the protocol which encrypts and transfers data over the web.
• www (not seen) is the web network
• model-railroad-hobbyist.com is the domain name and is basically the file cabinet
• node/44023 is the pathway from the domain name to the specific piece of paper that is this thread.

If you deleted that last part you'd just end up at the home page for the website.  Usually the file path is longer though, and there's often a page count included in the pathway on multi-page threads.

Basically, that number IS important, but not enough for the average person to need to care about.

Some stats

replies

I think what the OP is actually referring to is the reply posts rather than the thread itself.  For instance, Joe's reply above is #4 and this post is #5.  Railwire labels them as "reply #1, reply #2, etc. just ahead of the date and time.  In fact, I've always been mystified why this forum does not have post numbers.

URLs

I'm VERY aware of how websites and URLs work.