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A Map Thread is a venerable thread posted by Diamond in 2005 that has since spawned three sequels. It is the longest series of threads on AH.com.
Diamond originally posted the thread as a place to put maps for published AH works (and hence put it in the Books and Media subforum). However, since there it has become a place to post any random maps you feel like, and generally show off your cartographic skills. Regular contributors include Imajin, Thande, euio, Hapsburg, Highlander and, until his banning, Diamond (whom many still consider the master). Regular posters in the Map Thread are known as the Mappist Cabal.
Glen at one point tried to create Map Threads for every forum (pre-1900, post-1900, ASB, etc.) but these were not as successful as the single unified Map Thread approach.
It was traditional that, every few pages, Leej asked why the thread was in the formerly known as the Books, Movies and Websites forum, and someone would reply the thread is getting too long and they should divide it up/make a new one. This finally occurred on October 24, 2006 when Ian split off the first 5000 posts of the Map Thread, and created a new thread with the rest, entitled Map Thread II, which in turn was replaced by Map Thread III on September 15, 2007. The most recent incarnation, Map Thread IV, was started on May 9, 2008.