Thread breaking

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Thread breaking refers to the act of sabotaging the layout of a forum topic, usually through employing long strings of text. This causes paragraphs in the thread to stretch out amongst a single line of text. This is often done to make the text difficult to read and as a result cause viewers to lose interest in the thread.

An example of a thread that has been broken.

1 Alternative methods
2 Uses
3 Countermeasures
4 External links

[edit] Alternative methods

Page breaking – Stretching the layout vertically using many lines or the [br] command in some forums to make it hard for the reader to scroll down and see the next response.
Space breaking – Stretching the forum layout using only spaces, making it harder for the moderator to determine who broke the thread.
Link breaking – Posting an extremely long link to stretch the forum layout. The most popular way to do this is to insert a long query into the Google search engine and pasting the link. This is more subtle, and may confuse the moderator if a reason for posting the long link is given.
Image breaking – Posting a very large image so that the page takes longer to load, or an image that is very wide and long. This method is useful for forums with an anti-breaking system, as using the W breaking, Space Breaking, or Link Breaking methods will automatically split the long string among several lines.

[edit] Uses

Thread breaking is used to discourage discussion in a thread by making it hard to read. It can be used as a way for members of a forum to stop inappropriate threads (e.g when a moderator is not present), or used by internet trolls to destroy a very long post, causing the original thread maker to either re-make his post or wait until a moderator deletes the offending post.

[edit] Countermeasures

If the forum does not have technology built in to stop thread-breaking, the thread creator can make its effects less destructive by pressing enter or inserting a page break at the end of each line, which will prevent the paragraphs written to be stretched along with the layout.

Also, there has been a Mozilla Firefox extension called Bnet Squelcher developed to stop thread breaking both horizontally and vertically in the Warcraft III General Discussion forums, a feature which the forum lacks and where the practice is very common.