Just what you need Tomba .. a new idea to consider.
IMO, postings would be concise and responsible if a poster could see how many users were following a thread. Something like a text in the posting form "This thread is being followed by 51 people".
Often times these otherwise great posts die a sudden death when they devolve into a two person argument/disagreement/war of words. If posters could see just how subscribed a thread was they might feel more likely to post things that are relevant to the thread, not their own little squabbles.
Just a thought ..