gnu wrote: MOAB loads fifty posts at a time when clicked properly...

It sends you fifty posts. But how many database records does it read to find those fifty posts? And how many to write one more post on the end? And while it's doing that are other users queued up waiting so that it affects those who are reading other threads?

Without knowing how Mudcat is constructed and configured I don't know. But I doubt if the effect if very long threads hasn't been considered over the years.