# Longest fact-based threads?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-fact-based-threads/266997>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [October 1, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-fact-based-threads/266997 "2004-10-01T05:50:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-fact-based-threads/266997/1 "2004-10-01T05:50:26Z")

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Curious about this one, what have been the longest threads (most posts)? I’m not so interested in GD or the other opinion-oriented ones as I expect them to go on forever. I’m more curious to see what the breadth and depth of knowledge has resulted in here in GQ or the Cecil or Staff Report comments…

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**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-fact-based-threads/266997/2 "2004-10-01T07:19:23Z")

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Go to the General Questions forum, and scroll to the bottom of the page. You’ll see a blue horizontal bar with the title “Display Options”. Set the various boxes to:

Sorted by: Number of Replies  
From the: Beginning  
Sort Order: Descending

And click “Show Threads”. [All](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?s=&f=3&page=1&pp=50&sort=replycount&order=desc&daysprune=-1) will be revealed 🙂  
Famous among some of the longest:  
[Are scalar weapons for real?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=202225) (1017 replies)  
[What happens on May 33rd but only on leap year?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=44967) (313 replies)  
[How to kill evil Nazi Groundhogs](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=15906) (270 replies)  
It should be noted that some of the longest GQ threads, while addressing the factual question at hand, also contain a lot of joking about the subject in question.

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**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-fact-based-threads/266997/3 "2004-10-01T07:41:38Z")

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Thanks! Anyone know if there were longer ones than this that have been lost to technical mishaps? Just curious…

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**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-fact-based-threads/266997/4 "2004-10-01T07:56:38Z")

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> [@Crandolph](#):
>
> Thanks! Anyone know if there were longer ones than this that have been lost to technical mishaps? Just curious…

The biggest cause of lost threads was the Winter of Our Missed Content - the boards were down for about a month and all the content from early December 2001 to the time the board went offline in February 2002 were lost. I don’t recall anything longer than the Scalar Weapons thread that was lost suring that time, though it’s not impossible.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2004, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/longest-fact-based-threads/266997/5 "2004-10-01T08:15:00Z")

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> [@wolfstu](#):
>
> Famous among some of the longest:  
> [Are scalar weapons for real?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=202225) (1017 replies)…

Ah! they’re… never mind.