Long Threads

It is my understand that big threads should be closed around 30 pages.

Is this true?

Does anyone use any of the hacks to auto close and/or start a new thread?

-Raymond

I've heard the same and seen other boards do close big thread and start a part 2. On my forum our largest thread is 111 pages (Word Association Game :eek: ) and I see no ill effects.

My theory on why people say you should close big threads is because if people keep on calling it, it stays in the post cache, big threads = big cache. <-- Just a guess.

No way. I never close threads because of length.

Nope, I like to see threads grow long. Curently my longest thread is 23 pages long, And its just fine.:)

I don't understand why people would close them. It's not like they're taking up any room, lol.

I really think it's a cache thing, perhaps one of the geekier among us could say for sure. New threads and threads that are often replied to are kept in cache as I understand it to make lighter use of the database.

When a large thread keeps being updated, the whole thing is kept in cache, thus making the cache bigger. The bigger a file, the longer it takes to access and sort though.

Yeah but I can't see that it would make all that big of a difference. As long as it doesn't cause the site to load slower, I can't see closing a long thread. I mean, on EE, we had (and they still do) threads with over 400 pages. Doesn't make a difference on performance that I can tell.