What subject matter attracts readers?

Having posted a few new threads of my own recently, I've started to wonder:

What types of topics attracts a lot of readers? Some topics seem to get very low reader numbers and I'm wondering if it is the location (sub-forum), the Topic subject, a combination of both or maybe some special ju-ju?
 

Titillating

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Ahh, quite the question. Wish I could say we knew, but there's just a ton of variables, many that can't be controlled.

A compelling title is always a good draw. Even clickbait-y ones, though I don't personally like those. Forum location plays a small part, but more because of activity than anything. Busy forums like Systems usually sees posts being drowned out and pushed to the second page within a few hours, at which point it is frequently a lost cause. A big part of it is just timing. Despite being an international community that technically operates 24/7, there are definite lulls in activity where there are just fewer people browsing and responding to threads.

I should also mention that the "# reads" indicator is not always very precise or accurate. I don't know the specifics of it off the top of my head, but it tends to under-report the actual number of reads.
 
location, title, content and number of replies.

if its overlooked due to high thread count in a section or due to a dead section you might not get views. the title also needs to be informative yet concise. the thread also needs a clear question with supporting facts in easy to read formatting; far too often i see a question without any information or a giant wall of text nobody wants to read. last if a thread has too many replies some people might avoid it as they may be after a BA or do not want to get involved in a thread which already has people answering the question.