Joining In On 40+ Page Forum Threads

akute

Hiya.

Just wondering your thoughts/techniques for joining in on the long threads, most notably and almost uniquely found around here. Some threads can be 40+ pages, even dating back as much as a year or more.

What do you all do before joining in on a discussion? For example, I am reading the Bionic Commando thread in the Games/Tech forum, where some guy with a bubble bobble avatar is calling the NES version crap, also going on to say that it is practicly a broken game, and that the Bionic Commando: Rearmed remake for Xbox Live Arcade/PlayStation Network will also be junk.

Naturally infuriated, I was going to respond but I noticed the comment was made back in '08, and the fact that the comment was made on page 2 or 3 out of probably 40 pages.

How much should one read in these massive threads before it is socially acceptable to post? I admit, sometimes I read only the first and last posts, but after posting my feel that I am missing a few facts.

Care to share your own thread reading and posting habits, especially when concerning monster sizes?

TychoCelchuuu

If the thread was just recently revived I just read the first page and then all the recent posts. If it's a relatively new thread with a bunch of pages I just give up and wait for it to roll over at 100 pages.

wunderbar

yea, read the first couple pages, so you know how it started, then read the last 2-3. no need to read the 75 pages in between.

Bionic Monkey

Yeah, general rule of thumb is to read the first page, and the last two or three pages, then feel free to jump in.

wunderbar

oh, and don't feel intimidated jumping in. generally the people that are active in the thread are nice, and will help you out if you're missing something.

akute

Okay, great advice. Thanks everyone for quick replies...

What did TychoCelchuuu mean by rolling over at 100 pages?

Quid

akute wrote: »

Okay, great advice. Thanks everyone for quick replies...

What did TychoCelchuuu mean by rolling over at 100 pages?

Most threads are locked at 100 pages.

Smasher

Threads are typically locked at around 100 pages. If a thread is locked for that reason (as opposed to it being a shitty thread or something) it will usually be remade and discussion continues in the new thread.

Improvolone

When a thread hits 100 pgs its locked. A new one is welcome to be opened, but they are locked because it messes with the code... or something.

Bionic Monkey wrote: »

Yeah, general rule of thumb is to read the first page, and the last two or three pages, then feel free to jump in.

Hah, a rule of thumb that is never talked about but that most of us realize sooner or later.

Richard M. Nixon

In the old forums (phpBB) thread page counts over 100 mucked with the database. That's not the case with vBulletin, as far as I know. It's sort of a tradition and it keeps from having 500 page threads which are darn near impossible to read any of.

Depending on the content of the thread, I'll read the whole thing over a couple of days. If there is a comment from earlier than the last 5 pages or so that I want to respond to, I'll sometimes quote it, write my response, then write a secondary comment or response that's more recent. Admittedly I spend most of my time in SE++ and there aren't a whole lot of year old threads still going.

Figgy

What everyone has failed to mention is that replying to a comment from 30 pages ago is kind of pointless. For one, that part of the discussion has absolutely moved on and does not need to be revived, and secondly, the person who made the comment you would be replying to may not even follow the thread, may not remember saying that, or may not even give a shit any more.

If anything, chime in with your opinion on the original Bionic Commando, but don't quote someone from 30 pages ago.

DoctorArch

You will also get a feel for certain threads and personalities. While what Figgy says is true about the replying to a comment from 30 pages ago, that isn't always the case. A lot of the political threads have this broad commenting tendency, where people often link or return to things brought up 10, 20, or 30 pages previous.