General inquiry

I'm a little bewildered as for how duly the replies counter works, for instaces about an hour or so i did post an essay and the replies counter which appears at the extreme right of my board, points out that afterwards that period of time has worn off, i've had 11 replies, my question is, are those replies stemmed from people who have skimmed my post through or how may i make of this replies counter, if someone around may explain for me how this works i would be so appraciated to.