Systems, methods, media, and other embodiments associated with effort based relevance in discussion forums are described. One example method includes receiving activity data concerning messages associated with electronic discussion forum topics. The activity data may include a view count (Vw), a book mark count (Bf), a reference count (Rf), and a reply count (Rp). The effort based relevance may be computed from Vw and one or more of, Bf, Rf, and Rp. Topics may be logically ordered using the effort based relevance.