The most talked-about stories on Ars Technica in 2017

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson)

Yesterday, we gave you the top 20 features and news stories on Ars Technica in 2017. Today, it's time to talk about... the posts people talked about. Sometimes, we at the Orbiting HQ are genuinely surprised by the number of comments a post gets. There's occasionally an overlap between high traffic and high comment-count posts, but, more often than not, the lists diverge. That was the case in 2017, as only one of our 20 most popular stories was also one of the most commented.

As you might have guessed, some of the most-commented posts are on topics that readers have strong feelings about. Those include President Trump, white nationalists, diversity, and privacy. All comment totals are as of December 14, 2017. Let's dig in.

20. Un-bustable myths and stubborn minds: Pro-vaccine efforts backfire

Sadly, vaccinating your children remains a controversial topic in 2017. There is no scientific basis for refusing to vaccinate children, and, thankfully, the vast majority of people in developed countries understand that. But there's a vocal minority that refuses to accept the science behind vaccinations. Instead, anti-vaxxers put their children and immune-compromised people at risk. Beth Mole's article on how efforts to use a dose of science to dispel anti-vaxxer myths have backfired brought out a number of people defending the science and a smaller number of people expressing skepticism about the science. "[F]or me, the jury is still out," wrote Ars user rjdriver in the thread.