While the mega-thread phenomenon has been getting worse and worse, what motivated me to start this thread at this time is a story that a former-frequent poster told me over drinks recently. He came back to FT to find a specific answer to a specific question pertaining to upgrade status of a general member on same PNR. Unable to wade through the several mega-threads on upgrades that search returned he posted his specific question. Before anyone could reply it was moved to one of the several mega-threads that had little relevance to his specific question. There it went unanswered.

That's a serious problem as it renders FT useless to newbies and oldies alike!

I do agree that there is a time and a place for mega-threads. Hotel properties are a good example (although, in many instances they end up turning FT into TripAdvisor light). All questions about, say, a specific route too. But something as general as 'upgrades' is far too broad.

There is a TOS that requires threads to be on-topic, as I recall. This TOS is regularly violated by mega-threads which appear to my eyes to take any post containing a keyword (say, 'upgrade') and combining them into a single mega-thread whether the post has any relevance to other posts in that mega-thread or not. That's just lazy and it should be a TOS violation.

If the TOS on this matter is not specific enough, perhaps the TB should take a look at that TOS and consider making it more specific.