How long should a thread be? Can it be too long?

Hi Darren,

I don't think this is a problem at all, unless there are a lot of questions in a particular topic that don't have anything to do with the question asked in the first place. I'd move those extra comments to a separate topic.

If an answer is marked to a question with different variations, we keep the answer as it is. In these cases, that answer is more of a general explanation that could help with various questions related to the main question.

Hope this helps!

Angela

Hey Angela

Thanks so much for your reply!

Very helpful thanks. We have one or two topics now all related to the same thing spreading across 2-3 pages now (which is a good thing as there are lots of comments and helpful info), we just wanted to benchmark to see if that causes problems with customers finding the content.

Darran

You can always decide to post a summary of all the helpful comments as a 'modbreak'. ☺️

Angela

FYI: this answer refers to the actual content size of an initial topic or thread

Hi @OVOdarran

A topic can indeed be too long 😞

But let me explain in what sense: a post that is too long will have a negative effect on engagement, that is, on the amount of people that will either comment, like or even share the topic.
We know that topics that are less than 300 words long tend to have higher rates of engagement. We know as well that topics that are 1000 words or longer will on average not deliver any form of engagement.

Does this mean that you should never have long topics?
Not necessarily, but if you can keep them short, don't think it twice.

For topics where you need to provide general information (Welcome topics, community guidelines, gamification on the community, FAQs, and similar ones) you may not be posting these topics with the aim of generating engagement, but mainly to inform your members and visitors about certain aspects. In those cases I wouldn't worry too much about topic length.

Hope it helps!