December 25, 2025
10,000 and the lights go out
Mattermost restricted access to old messages after 10000 limit is reached
Mattermost locks old chats after 10k — users cry “open source, but locked?”
TLDR: Mattermost’s self‑hosted chat started hiding messages beyond 10,000 after an upgrade, sparking outrage and confusion. Commenters argue it’s wrong for open source, debate whether the MIT license lets them strip the cap, and even suggest ditching it for alternatives — all while joking about a “memory tax.”
A school admin upgraded their self‑hosted Mattermost (a Slack‑like chat app) and got a shock: a banner saying older messages are hidden after a 10,000‑message limit, with a “Restore Access” prompt. Their GitHub issue lit the fuse, and the comments exploded. The hottest take? If it’s MIT‑licensed open source, why is there a hard cap at all? One user flat‑out asked why nobody just removes the limit themselves, while another called it “another level of insane” to restrict history on a server you run yourself.
Then came the plot twists. People speculated about business motives — “Did they take VC money?” — and got tangled in license confusion. A README line about a monthly “compiled version under MIT” had commenters asking if this is basically freeware and whether it’s legal to modify the binaries. Meanwhile, practicality warriors marched in with alternatives: “What’s Mattermost? Just use XMPP,” suggesting a mass exodus to other self‑hosted chat servers. The meme energy soared: folks joked about a “10k boss fight,” a “memory tax,” and “paywalling your own messages.”
Bottom line: the community is split between hackers ready to patch out the limit, idealists furious about locks in open source, and switch‑ers packing their bags. The drama? Spicy, loud, and very, very online.
Key Points
- •After a recent upgrade, a Mattermost Team Edition instance shows a notice that a 10,000-message limit has been reached.
- •Messages sent before September 26, 2025 are hidden, with a “Restore Access” option displayed.
- •The reporter asks when this hard restriction was introduced, suggesting it may be in version 11.
- •They ask whether the cutoff date is calculated by the 10,000 most recent messages or is based on a time window.
- •The affected instance is a school deployment with 2,000+ active users and about 470,000 posts; the issue remains open with a license-related label.