<p>I am fairly new to CrossValidated, but during the last month I could not help noticing curiously high popularity of at least two questions that I am missing a right term to describe -- maybe "small talk" questions? I mean the Facebook question and the Amazon question, and you can check <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/?tab=month">https://stats.stackexchange.com/?tab=month</a> to see that they are <em>by far</em> the winners by upvotes, views, and even favourites. Neither of them raises what I would consider to be particularly deep statistical questions, and looking at what sort of questions top users here enjoy answering, I suspect I am not alone. Given plenty of truly excellent questions and enlightening answers appearing here almost daily, I am a bit puzzled. The Facebook question is actually the sixth <em>overall</em>, which I personally find rather ridiculous.</p>

<p>Why does it happen? Is it something like a slashdot effect, or is it internal CV phenomenon? Was it always like that? Do people here perceive it as amusing or annoying?</p>
