# Why only first page of "Comments on Columns" and this forum, maybe others?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-only-first-page-of-comments-on-columns-and-this-forum-maybe-others/442789>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [March 26, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-only-first-page-of-comments-on-columns-and-this-forum-maybe-others/442789 "2008-03-26T13:30:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-only-first-page-of-comments-on-columns-and-this-forum-maybe-others/442789/1 "2008-03-26T13:30:26Z")

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I checked into Comments on Cecil’s Columns and it shows only the first page. There is no page navigation at the bottom, such as in GQ, to see older threads.

I notice the same thing on this forum as well.

Why is that?

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**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-only-first-page-of-comments-on-columns-and-this-forum-maybe-others/442789/2 "2008-03-26T13:33:34Z")

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I don’t know what the board default is, but I only see threads from the last day – if there are only a couple of threads that have been posted to in the last 24 hours in a forum, that’s all I see. “Comments on Columns” isn’t a particularly lively forum, so only one active thread doesn’t seem implausible to me.

To check what your setting is, go to “User CP” in the blue line at top, then go to “Edit Options” and cursor down.

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**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-only-first-page-of-comments-on-columns-and-this-forum-maybe-others/442789/3 "2008-03-26T13:39:33Z")

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At the bottom of each forum page I see “Display Options”. For ATMB it says “show threads from the last 2 days”. Increase this number and you get multiple pages. Setting this to “from the beginning” gives 129 pages for ATMB, and 66 for CCC . The default times for threads varies across the forums. You can change them in your user CP.

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**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-only-first-page-of-comments-on-columns-and-this-forum-maybe-others/442789/4 "2008-03-26T13:59:27Z")

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Well, yeah, if you _want_ to do it the easy way…

:smack:

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**Author:** ![onions\_without\_tears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c37758/32.png) [@onions\_without\_tears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/onions_without_tears)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2008, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-only-first-page-of-comments-on-columns-and-this-forum-maybe-others/442789/5 "2008-03-26T16:58:41Z")

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I wondered about that myself. Seems like an easy enough change. I can’t see why not. So I second the motion.