# How many threads in the cornfield? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 14, 2016, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157 "2016-04-14T01:35:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/21 "2016-04-14T15:14:09Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > So you are confirming that there is, indeed, a cornfield? > [@Chronos](#): > > Well, that’s not its actual name, but yes, there is a forum accessible only to mods to which troublesome threads are moved. We have mentioned before that there is a hidden forum to which problematic threads are moved. > [@oft\_wears\_hats](#): > > So why the distinction between invisible threads and banished threads? That’s just what the software does. We can either delete threads, which still technically remain in their original forum, or move them to a separate forum. Both cannot be seen by regular members but are accessible to mods. > [@](#): > > If invisible spammer threads appear ghostly to mods, doesn’t that clutter up the thread list? Or do they sink to the bottom quickly because no one can bump them? > [@campp](#): > > They may appear to mods as a different color or font. That’s what we used to do in a UBB I mod’d for a while. They appear in a different font but disappear from the front page fairly rapidly since they are not being posted to. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/22 "2016-04-14T15:42:14Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > As I understand it, when the mods make a post or thread disappear, the thread actually goes into a supersecret forum from which spammers, socks, _et al_ can never escape. After all these years I’d guess that forum has gotten quite large. Does anyone have a count for it, and how that lone forum compares with all the legitimate posts that are still visible? It’s a lot, but I think sometimes the Mods actually go back to the banned socks for a catch. It’s kind of sweet, except the jackboots kind of mess up the field sometimes… ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/23 "2016-04-14T17:50:42Z")
The mods like to go into the cornfield every once in a while and make crop circles. They have contests to see who can make the most intricate ones. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/24 "2016-04-14T18:36:21Z")
On occasion, they go in there and get frisky. Then, nine months later, a new child of the corn. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/25 "2016-04-14T19:06:37Z")
Is it a “Children of the Corn” cornfield or a “Field of Dreams” kind of cornfield? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/26 "2016-04-14T19:55:13Z")
It’s a really _nice_ cornfield. Tell [del]Anthony[/del]the Moderators I said it’s a really _nice_ cornfield. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/27 "2016-04-14T20:47:14Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Is it a “Children of the Corn” cornfield or a “Field of Dreams” kind of cornfield? _Twilight Zone_. It’s a _good_ thing **Colibri** did. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/28 "2016-04-14T22:20:10Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Is it a “Children of the Corn” cornfield or a “Field of Dreams” kind of cornfield? [It’s a Good Life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkJcFGvNgcY) kind of cornfield. Like I said, full of three headed gophers. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/29 "2016-04-14T22:47:02Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Egads - **engineer\_comp\_geek** hasn’t been moderating all _that_ long. I assume that your friendly streaming spam poster accounts for a lot of these, but none the less, that is a massive number. A few a day. :eek: > > I also assume (hope) that the need to ban legitimate posters (ie not spammers) doesn’t account for much of this effort. The numbers only include spammers, not socks or trolls. The number of “legitimate” posters we ban is around a dozen a year, and doesn’t even come into it compared to the others. The number of spammers I gave is approximate, and is based on the number of posts in our documentation thread. Some posts document more than one spammer, so the actual numbers are significantly larger. Of course, there are fewer actual spammers involved since many come back multiple times. **Marley23** banned at least 8,061 spammers in his 79 months of active moderation, or an average of 102 a month. **engineer\_comp\_geek** has banned at least 3,577 in just over 30 months as a mod, or 119 a month. At this rate, he should catch **Marley23** in a little over four more years.🙂 Marley23 is also first on the Sockfinder General and Trollkiller lists. Somewhat to my surprise, I find that although **samclem** is second on the Sockfinder list, I am second as a Trollkiller (although with less than a quarter of Marley’s total.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/30 "2016-04-14T23:40:46Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > _Twilight Zone_. > > It’s a _good_ thing **Colibri** did. It was a [short story by Jerome Bixby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Good_Life) before it was adapted for television on The Twilight Zone. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/31 "2016-04-14T23:46:53Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > _Twilight Zone_. > > It’s a _good_ thing **Colibri** did. Yes, it’s a _very_ good thing **Colibri** did, isn’t it? **Colibri** is kind and good, and very wise. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/32 "2016-04-15T00:10:45Z")
“How many threads in the cornfield?” With this thread or without it? Because this one will eventually be added to it. Oh yes, it will happen someday. It will happen to all of them someday…muahahahahaha. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/33 "2016-04-15T02:21:39Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Yes, it’s a _very_ good thing **Colibri** did, isn’t it? **Colibri** is kind and good, and very wise. I would really, really, really like to be able to turn you all into three-headed gophers. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/34 "2016-04-15T02:24:45Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > “How many threads in the cornfield?” > > With this thread or without it? > Because this one will eventually be added to it. Oh yes, it will happen someday. > It will happen to all of them someday…muahahahahaha. They _all_ float down there. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/35 "2016-04-15T03:29:40Z")
Face down. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/36 "2016-04-15T03:58:06Z")
While I do actually appreciate the knowledge about how spam threads/posts are handled differently, I’m still curious about the OP’s original question. How many threads are in the “cornfield” forum, after all these years? If for some reason you don’t want to share exact numbers, approximate ones would still be interesting. It would be interesting, for example, if it had more than ATMB or the Thread Games forum (with 14264 and 236, respectively). I assume you can just say “From The Beginning” at the bottom of the page, click Show Threads, and then scroll back to the bottom and read the number–like you can on the other forums. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/37 "2016-04-15T06:02:08Z")
I must know – how often does someone answer a thread in the “cornfield” section years after the fact? (Zombies in the Cornfield…!!!) ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/38 "2016-04-15T10:09:59Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > While I do actually appreciate the knowledge about how spam threads/posts are handled differently, I’m still curious about the OP’s original question. How many threads are in the “cornfield” forum, after all these years? The cornfield currently has 28,943 threads in it. Not all of these are problematic threads that were moved there. The forum is also used to keep track of a lot of stuff. For comparison, here are the thread counts of other forums: About This Message Board 13,844 Comments on Cecil’s Columns/Staff Reports 9,220 General Questions 223,924 Great Debates 41,554 Elections 2,997 Cafe Society 128,831 The Game Room 14,836 Thread Games 229 In My Humble Opinion (IMHO) 104,703 Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS) 135,038 Marketplace 365 The BBQ Pit 38,385 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/39 "2016-04-15T15:10:30Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > The cornfield currently has 28,943 threads in it. Not all of these are problematic threads that were moved there. The forum is also used to keep track of a lot of stuff. The biggest single category is thread reports, which constitute about 12,000 of those threads. Each report generates a new thread. The vast majority of those reports are of spam, since a single spam post can generate many reports. About another 6,000 are “housekeeping” threads, most of which are also related to spam. Of the remainder, a lot are spam threads that got moved instead of being deleted. So the cornfield is largely made up of spam and spam reports. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157/40 "2016-04-15T15:46:23Z")
So, whenever a user reports a post, the report shows up in the Cornfield? Neat! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-threads-in-the-cornfield/752157.md?page=3)