Thread Count: Which discussion will reign supreme?

Unless you've been living in a Reddit-cave or under a Reddit-rock for the past year or so, this graph should be self-explanatory. But scroll down if you need an explanation.

Way back in September 2007 (has it really been that long?), there was a discussion thread on Reddit that got really deep. Not like "interesting deep", but just "a lot of replies deep". Soon, people started to wonder if there had ever been a thread that long, and what would happen if it kept growing. Would the comments get narrower and narrower, until they were the width of a single pixel? Would they break through the scrollbar and spill out the side of the browser window and all over everyone's desktops? Would the 1000th post open a secret door to a hidden bonus level of Reddit?

To really get the ball rolling, someone declared "Fibonacci!" and the rest was history. A "0" was posted, followed by two "1"s, a "2", a "3", and literally thousands more. For some reason, Redditors liked the idea of keeping the thread going, whether it was the fun of participating in an Internet meme, a desire to leave one's mark upon the world, or just good old-fashioned OCD. Regardless, it's been going on ever since — they're up to like sixty kajillion and one — and it seemed like it was the qgyh2 of threads, so far ahead that nobody would ever catch up.

Then Epic Thread happened. I won't even try to explain this one, for the same reason that it's not a good idea to analyze a joke. You'll just have to read the posts yourself.

Anyway, I wondered how the size of the two threads would compare, so I decided to study their respective growth, and I also set up a script to record it from this point forward. The result is the graph above. It'll be fun to watch their progress. At least, if you're an unemployed nerd like me.

If you'd like to read through all the posts, here are some links to their beginnings .