150 message limit

DPR had a 150 message limit. There's a thread on in the Open Talk forum about where to post photos which got me to thinking about this. The FM site (Fred Miranda) has threads that will go 50 pages or more and hundreds of posts. These threads featuring images of a specific model or class appear in nearly every dedicated gear forum. And, the site still has a robust set of Presentation boards. If the 150 message limit is a must, I would like to see some threads with no limit where photos of a specific model can accrue.

It seems pointless to have a limit such as DPreview did - it forced people to start follow up threads. I think it was purely a platform limitation.

Please no.
I've read somewhere on DPR that the 150 messages limit was introduced deliberately but it's very unique to DPR and, I would say, pointless. When a discussion diverges from an original topic, it happens much earlier than 150 messages.

I can't see how moving inactive posts to an archive folder would be of much help. Better, perhaps, to just let them sink in a list view where the most recent activity is at the top.

As regards the DPR 150-post limit, it could be frustrating and/or a nuisance. But I also have experience on some other forums where threads extend to thousands of posts and become pretty useless (time consuming and very difficult to keep track of, navigate or find anything meaningful). So that may have been DPR's motivation for the limit.

If a limit were contemplated here, I'd suggest it be significantly higher (maybe 500). But if people aren't asking for it and there's no clear need it's probably berst to leave things as they are for now.

First off, I apologize for posting this in this forum. It should have gone into the Development forum. I tried to rectify this but could not delete the message here which led to my post in the Development forum about deleting messages. :)

I don't have any druthers one way or the other about thread message lengths except when it comes to dedicated photo threads ala FM. I do not know if the software will allow variable threads lengths. If not, I would be in favor unrestricted threads.

I think you are asking for an example of a terminated thread on DPR due to length:
www.dpreview.com/forums/post/66962733

This is indeed how it works now, but how about using this in a smart way: Once a thread reaches 150 messages, one can continue to post, but new posts will not contribute to the "activity" of the thread, so it will naturally sink down the list and eventually be forgotten, just like the maxed-out threads at the old DPR, but without a hard stop to the discussion?

Couple of points for now:
- at least some of the fun of threads like The Sunday Cat are that they start on a weekly basis. That was in part a necessity, which would disappear with the 150 cap lifted. But a time cap [say 4 days after last reply] might work
- in the old Fuji forum you regularly saw a post from a new member replying to a thread months or even years old with a text like 'I have the exact same problem' or asking the thread's OP 'is your problem solved?'. This was often unproductive.
- I may misremember but the 150 cap was an attempt to limit endless to-and-froing between a couple of members who couldn't even agree to disagree. It was a bit of a blunt instrument.
- I'm rather partial to new threads. It helps that the [new or old] OP is a bit forced to think again
= if archived means readable / searchable in the same place but cannot be replied to, that's OK [but most certainly not delete or only indirectly readable

totally not a good idea - neither to limit amount of posts/replies nor to move posts w/o new replies... consider FAQ-type of postings, etc ( I started a number of such )

A limit can be a benefit in some cases. I others it can be a determent. All too often after awhile the posts in a thread will have no correlation to the title. All too often a thread is drawn out as a small number - usually two argue over something tangential to the title of the post. A limit is a natural way for the thread to die a natural life without any need for Mods to get involved. If one believes that the title of the contents of the post should be correlated with the title then some mechanism to keep threads from drifting so far off topic that the thread has utility. Personally from my 20 years of hanging around DPR I found the 150 limit to actually be too large. In a few cases, if there was still something left to discuss on the original topic - then a follow on thread could easily be started. There is no bigger waste of time than to see a thread titled "optimal AF settings for the Fuji XH2 for ...," just to open it and see the discussion on the best raincoats.

Just chiming in my personal experience.
The on-going threads are useful when it's an image showcase of specific equipment. I've found those threads to be immensely useful on both the mu-43 and fredmiranda forums.
However topical discussions I think should be limited to 150 (or another limit) posts. It's much easier to search and follow information/discussions within a limited post thread.