[FairOpinion]

"When the moderators access the thread it puts a huge load on the system which is increasing as the thread size increases."

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Interesting. Maybe the system tries to load all the posts on the thread. Since most threads are not anywhere this long, it probably isn't worth to try to do some programming, so it only loads the 10 or so posts before and after the post the Mod is getting a report on. I can see, how the system trying to load over 10,000 at the same time can create problem.

I think the system is probably set up, so when we access it, it only loads the 50 or so posts on one page, and the system can handle that with no problems.

[JustPiper]

I would think the threads heavy with gifs load the system down, I know some threads take forever to load with pics.