Get rid of 1000 post limit

[ThejoyofNC]

Hi, just wondering if you've ever considered removing the cap for 1000 posts on a thread? Or could you perhaps explain why this is in place?

There was an excellent thread last night and when I checked that this morning the thread had filled up before op could issue an update. It would be great on boards like the pregnancy one where multiple threads run over a few months and some people don't find the new one.

@ThejoyofNC

If it's the "CF tickets" thread, the OP has posted further on the thread asking about where that thread has gone (IYSWIM). Although as she isn't the OP of the second thread, her posts aren't highlighted/filterable so it's all a bit confusing!

Hi OP

Thanks for flagging this.

The 1,000 post limit is mainly for technical and usability reasons. Very long threads can slow things down, so keeping them capped helps the boards run smoothly for everyone.

We do know it can be a bit frustrating when a busy thread fills up before there’s an update, though. In most cases, we find that the OP starts a follow-up thread relatively quickly.

We’ll keep chatting in the office about whether there’s a better way to handle it, but hopefully that explains the ‘why’ a bit more.

I agree OP. Another forum I go on which has been around longer than MN doesn’t have a cap - some threads have 30k plus responses.

Perhaps if a thread is full there should be a facility for the OP only (or HQ) to add 1 message to link to follow up thread?

I agree there should be a link to a new thread being created. The problem with really long threads is it often ends up in a ‘cancel the cheque’ situation with people just repeating the same common sense piece of advice given on page 1 and not actually adding anything to the thread.

Thank you for the response @LilyMumsnet .

I think the idea from PP is a good one. Where if the threat is full then the op has the option to add a link to another one.

We’ve actually done this a few times for long-running threads - either by adding a follow-on link or editing the opening post to include one. So the answer is yes! At the moment, though, it does require the user to report the post to us, and we’d then edit or post on their behalf.