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Sun 4 Jul, 2004 01:13 pm
A question which comes up from time to time is "What is the longest thread on A2K?" There's sorta 2 answers to that. With nearly 40,000 replies and almost 1300 pages at the time of this writing, the
The neverending WORD ASSOCIATION GAME is the leader by far. However, the threads titled as variations on "The UN, The US, and Iraq" stem from a thread titled The Iraq Questions, which began in the Autum of '02. As each thread reaches a size great enough to negatively impact the server, it is closed and a successor thread is opened. The first was titled simply The US The UN and Iraq, the successors have essentially the same title but with a sequence number appended. The current incarnation is the 7th, being in effect the 6th successor thread to the original offshoot. The series is a single discussion, and is one of the longest continuous single topic discussions to be found on the Web, having literally scores of thousands of replies (many of which are original essays of major- magazine-article length and quality), and an aggregate pageview count into the millions over its nearly 2 year history.
Here are links to each of the threads in the series.
The Iraq Questions
The US, The UN, and Iraq I
The US, The UN, and Iraq II
The US, The UN, and Iraq III
The US, The UN, and Iraq IV
The US, The UN, and Iraq V
The US, The UN, and Iraq VI
The US, The UN, and Iraq VII
Just as an aside, the long threads do not negatively impact the server and it would have been cool to have them all in one thread. We could have set an internet record.
There's no reason to break it off into new threads.
Yeah, now that CdK mentions it, I guess there really was no good reason to break up the thread. My bad for perpetuationg that bit of A2K urban myth. If I recall, there was some discussion among some folks about "Slow loading" ... but that really didn't have anything to do with the thread's length, as I understand it. It would certainly have been great if it had remained in one ultra- long thread ... quite an accomplishment as it is, but a real wowser if it was all one thread. Oh, well.
Also, there were intervals in which that discussion had some of the best political commentary - anywhere.
Not always, of course.
i agree with roger, especially the last sentence.....
Good lord. 1400 pages.
I'm just going to go lie down for a minute...
BaileyStapleton wrote:Good lord. 1400 pages.
I'm just going to go lie down for a minute...
read one page then skip the next 99 and so on. it's faster that way and you won't (probably) go running screaming out into the night.
btw, welcome to a2k!
I am one of the folks who am interested but have not kept up, by virtue of the giant presence of the thread.
I know why the thread was cut at some point re loading, but that is for the dialuppers... no? Much faster for those with faster connections. Still, a giant pain for those who are used to posting on it, but have to deal with dial up.
I'll just shut up now and listen.
And thanks that it is here.
Quick update; a bit past its second birthday, and the The Iraq Questions/The US, The UN, and Iraq combined threads now total well over 3,000 pages of responses.
and word association is on its 4111th page.
i'm still kinda bummed that my original welcome new members thread was closed by the moderators, so that they could start a new one. not, like, big time annoyed, but a bit.
Lotsa stuff coulda been different. Not much point fussin' over it. I figure what we've got is lots better than what we'd have if A2K wasn't around.
so truth timber... so true
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