I'll have a go at this one. The nested comment system combined with the voting algorithm reinforces the lowest common denominator of conversation, whatever that ought to be called. This means you get improvements over the old vBulletin system of timestamped hierarchy, but there's only so good the conversations can tend to get. Basically, when someone makes a good post, it's almost an accident. When there are enough users, the voting system will, well, flatten the curve. With 100-200 people who share common interests it works fine, but past that it degenerates into the same useless noise you'd find on television or something similar.
There seems to be a critical threshold between quality and participation, after which someone needs to step in and direct the show, so to speak. This is why all subs get good as they are picking up steam and then get worse once the rest of the site finds them. We saw this in CTH after the sub hit around ~50k subscribers.
Well I really like how the top comment in a thread doesn't stay that way. On Reddit there's a problem where getting to a thread first puts it front and center. That isn't happening here except in very low-participation threads. I still have my old Reddit habits from using this site, like checking my profile page to respond to reply alerts, and I've been delighted to see that new posts in an old thread rise to the top. So the new sorting algorithm seems to help. Whoever's idea that was, they have my kudos.
I'll have a go at this one. The nested comment system combined with the voting algorithm reinforces the lowest common denominator of conversation, whatever that ought to be called. This means you get improvements over the old vBulletin system of timestamped hierarchy, but there's only so good the conversations can tend to get. Basically, when someone makes a good post, it's almost an accident. When there are enough users, the voting system will, well, flatten the curve. With 100-200 people who share common interests it works fine, but past that it degenerates into the same useless noise you'd find on television or something similar.
There seems to be a critical threshold between quality and participation, after which someone needs to step in and direct the show, so to speak. This is why all subs get good as they are picking up steam and then get worse once the rest of the site finds them. We saw this in CTH after the sub hit around ~50k subscribers.
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Well I really like how the top comment in a thread doesn't stay that way. On Reddit there's a problem where getting to a thread first puts it front and center. That isn't happening here except in very low-participation threads. I still have my old Reddit habits from using this site, like checking my profile page to respond to reply alerts, and I've been delighted to see that new posts in an old thread rise to the top. So the new sorting algorithm seems to help. Whoever's idea that was, they have my kudos.