Huge "General Discussion" Threads

What are you feelings on threads that get to be thousands of pages long? I always thought they were cool and tried to encourage them, but my other staff members HATE them because they're impossible to keep up with! Since they do way more moderating than me, I locked our biggest one.

I know in the past, big threads had to be locked because of vBulletin 3's database issues. But I don't think that's the case anymore past vB4 and any other modern forum software.

So what is your opinion on them? Keep 'em or lock 'em?

 

I keep them because the long term users seem to really like them. Even when there isn't much going on on the regular threads, the old users will usually be having a conversation in the "mega" thread. It keeps them coming back, and that's what I want.

 

Instead of locking them would it be worth it to split them?

 

I allow the threads to keep on going until they've reached their course and users stop posting on them. There's no need to lock a thread when users are actively participating on them.