I have a question for the mods... I little bit ago, the issue came up that when threads get too big, they are too slow loading when the moderators have to get in them to delete posts.
We at the Hobbit Hole liked to run our threads to the limit, and hardly ever need moderating so it rarely has come up before, unless it is now a rule to not let it get too big. We were asked to start a new threads early the last two times... presumably because of this issue.
Folk there hate to move, but we don't want to be a bother either. Question is, how big is too big? We'd move without being told if we knew.
Erections lasting longer than four hours, although rare, should seek immediate medical attention.;-)
There's no perfect answer to this question. We have found that about 5000 replies is where the effects of us operating on a big thread have a noticeable impact on overall site response.
Not sure exactly what is happening, but when a moderator opens a thread, even just to read it, we have a bigger impact on the thread than a typical user does.
So, even if we are not attempting to change anything, we slow FR down for everyone.
If you would create a new thread at about 5000 replies and contact us via abuse report, we can lock the current thread and force replies to the new one.
Thanks