# Using private / personal messages as long term chat
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356
**Category:** Announcements
**Tags:** new-feature
**Created:** [21 במרץ, 2016, 9:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356 "2016-03-21T09:28:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@thefreekick](https://meta.discourse.org/u/thefreekick)
#### Post date: [13 באפריל, 2016, 8:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/22 "2016-04-13T08:48:10Z")
The error messages here seem to be wrong.
This is a long public topic on my forum which has just locked itself but it’s referencing the 200 post limit that applies to a PM topic.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [13 באפריל, 2016, 8:53am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/23 "2016-04-13T08:53:35Z")
Yep, that was a bug that we fixed – it swapped the 10k and 200 (now 500) numbers unfortunately. @sam we should redeploy to reach the sites that have the bug. Very, very unfortunate bug there.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [13 באפריל, 2016, 10:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/24 "2016-04-13T10:36:17Z")
Yes all are deployed.
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### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [13 באפריל, 2016, 1:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/25 "2016-04-13T13:29:34Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> OK! This change is in 1.6 beta 1, with the following default limits:
>
> 500 max replies in a PM topic
> 10000 max replies in a topic
>
> These can be changed (or disabled, by setting to 0) via auto close messages post count and auto close topics post count in Admin, Site Settings.
So I’m a bit confused. As originally, I thought the plan was two settings for PMs, one for regular users and one for staff, now it also affects public topics?
My concern with the public topics, although, a topic being over 10,000 posts is likely to not be on its original topic and more than likely shifted a hundred times over, but rather it kills any discussion immediately. Just bam, shuts it down.
However, I do like that it can be disabled. As we do have a few that are over 10,000 posts, but they are quirky fun related topics, not serious discussions.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [13 באפריל, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/26 "2016-04-13T22:13:46Z")
> [@cpradio](#):
>
> So I’m a bit confused. As originally, I thought the plan was two settings for PMs, one for regular users and one for staff, now it also affects public topics?
I am still uneasy about adding a separate setting for staff here. It kind of feels like cheating.
Regarding public topic, this is a temporary measure.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [13 באפריל, 2016, 10:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/27 "2016-04-13T22:14:27Z")
Yeah we can defer on the staff override there for a bit.
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### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [13 באפריל, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/28 "2016-04-13T23:05:06Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> I am still uneasy about adding a separate setting for staff here. It kind of feels like cheating.
Yeah, that makes sense. I honestly don’t see the big need for two separate settings, was just trying to figure out how it went form 2 settings regarding private messages to 1 public 1 private, but your second statement, answered that.
> [@sam](#):
>
> Regarding public topic, this is a temporary measure.
I half wonder if a better approach would have been to set Auto-Close to an hour once it hits the threshold, so people can quickly finish up whatever discussion they had on-going and not get a it is shut down response. However, many this is being done in sideqik in which case there might be a “time period” that will still run letting it exceed 10,000 posts for a bit before it flips to close. I may need to play with this feature a bit by setting it to a relatively low number to see how it behaves.
It would be nice to document how it behaves, be it sideqik (and how often the job runs) or immediate based on the post that forces it to exceed the threshold.
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### Author:  [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [12 באפריל, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/29 "2020-04-12T21:24:53Z")
As [this solution](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/20) seems to [continue the performance issue](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356) is there [any other way](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/5) to keep the TL3 chat alive (that one specifically) after the 10K limit has been reached?
Just asking for a canonical HOW-TO I can point the mods from [my community](https://forum.manjaro.org/) **¹** to without ~~kicking the can down the road~~ continuing the original problem as the Discourse platform will run into this issue eventually for all TL3 chats **²**.
So an easy way of posting a link in the old TL3 chat **inviting all current and future TL3 users over to the new chat with an additional 10K post limit** would be beneficial to both the Discourse platform _and the mods_ out there…
**Note 1:** Yup, the Discourse Easter present from the Easter bunny in 2020 was a frozen [Manjaro.org](http://Manjaro.org) TL3 chat room… 😜 🤪
**Note 2:** ITIL definition of “Problem” = “Multiple issues having the same Root Cause”
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [12 באפריל, 2020, 10:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/30 "2020-04-12T22:47:54Z")
The solution is to [use an actual chat](https://blog.discourse.org/2018/04/effectively-using-discourse-together-with-group-chat/)… otherwise you’re going to be swimming upstream forever 🐟
Remember that [megatopics are incredibly dangerous](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-megatopic-public-good-or-public-menace/85592) for so many reasons.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [16 בפברואר, 2022, 7:23pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-private-personal-messages-as-long-term-chat/41356/31 "2022-02-16T19:23:44Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> We _totally_ get that some communities want a chat feature very badly, and this is something that is solidly on our medium term roadmap. We hear you loud and clear and we largely agree; there’s a legitimate need for a more real time “lane” on the highway. But abusing Discourse personal messages to force it into a private chat system is not the right way to support that feature.
Note that chat will be released in Discourse 2.9 as an oifficial, albeit beta (and possibly default off) feature. So [if you feel the need .. the need.. _for speed_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odMO18xcVPs), aka rapid-fire chat, we will meet that need soon!
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