Why does the Chat topic heading start with an underscore?

[KillerStilettos]

I have wanted to know this for ages. I am sure there is a Mumsnet historical story for the reason - and I wanna know!!

[GeekBoy]

So it appears at the end of the list..

[StealthPolarBear]

keeps it at the bottom as it is less important

[coppertop]

Back in the olden days when we used to write our posts on cave walls, people complained about the Chat topic. There were so many threads on there that they swamped the "posts in last hour/day/week" sections - a bit like the For Sale threads have been swamping the "Last 15 minutes" and "New messages" sections. The underscore meant that they were all moved to the bottom of the screen and stopped whingers people complaining.

[zippitippitoes]

i never knew that

[KillerStilettos]

Ahhhh!! I am now enlightened . Thank you!

Can we suggest other topics that we think should also be demoted to underscore status?

[GeekBoy]

It's promoted really by giving it an extra character with a higher ascii value.. [geek]