14. The method of claim 5 further comprising generating, by the one or more configured computing systems, a defined template representing changes in quantity over time based at least in part on the determined quantities of identified textual comments for the multiple prior time periods, to enable predictions of additional future quantities of textual comments when future conditions match at least a portion of the defined template.
14. The method of claim 5 further comprising generating, by the one or more configured computing systems, a defined template representing changes in quantity over time based at least in part on the determined quantities of identified textual comments for the multiple prior time periods, to enable predictions of additional future quantities of textual comments when future conditions match at least a portion of the defined template. 15. The method of claim 14 wherein the generating of the defined template is further based in part on the predicted expected quantities for at least some of the multiple future time periods, and includes verifying, at a time after the at least some future time periods, that the predicted expected quantities for the at least some future time periods match actual quantities of textual comments associated with the indicated topic that were supplied during the at least some future time periods.