well, i'm not sure if there's an upper limit, kathy. the boards FAQ says the following:

Quote
How long should a story part be?

How long is a piece of string?

There used to be a limit of 20KB (about 8 pages) on the size of story parts posted on the LCFic mailing list, because AOL would convert longer messages into attachments, which were much more difficult for its users to open. Since many authors post to the fic list and the MB in parallel, story parts on the MB tended to stick to the same limit.

Fortunately that problem seems to have disappeared, and readers tend to prefer somewhat longer chunks, especially for long stories. Story parts are normally somewhere between about 6 and 15 pages long (15 - 40 KB), but they can be shorter or longer depending on the natural breaks in the story, and its length and pace. The readers may grumble if they think a part is too short; however, short parts have the advantage of drawing more readers, since it's easier to fit a few minutes of reading into a busy day.

Shorter stories up to about 15 - 20 pages (40 - 50 KB) can be posted in a single part, but authors often split them, especially if there's a cliff-hanger partway through. Cliff-hangers also provoke complaints from the readers, of a good-natured "how can you do this to us?!?" kind. A shortish story posted in several parts over a few days will tend to get more detailed comments than the same story posted in a single chunk.
so, i figured 50k is about the upper limit. that's why i decided to split chi beta, only for some reason i ended up cutting into 4 instead of 2. i'm just used to shorter posts, i guess.

personally, i prefer shorter posts, as long as they're frequent enough. i know a lot of people have schedules that make it hard to do a lot of reading at once, and there's already a thread up about how people are falling behind due to the december fic rush.

of course, it does depend on the story.. how long it is and the mood and the natural breaks, etc etc. i remember labby playing with post size when she was posting masques. ended up doubling the original length per post, iirc.

do what feels right, i guess. or, if you want, post a poll. i'm not really sure there's a right answer.

hope this helps more than confuses.

Paul

When in doubt, think about penguins. It probably won't help, but at least it'll be fun.