The "Active Articles" view is the same as "Comments" except that it is ordered by the headline rather than the latest comment. You see the same list of articles in the same order either way. Commenting in a thread bumps it to the top in either view. Once shows you headlines in that thread, the other shows you the latest comments in that thread.
No, you misunderstood. When I bring up FR I want the “latest posts” page, not the list of articles. Anyway, I was just fooling around here and I replaced my existing link with the address for the “comments” page and it seems to be working right again! Even when I refresh it stays on the comments page.
Cool.