[daviddennis]

I have thought that a Slashdot-style system would be nice here, but I really like the way the discussion flows as a consecutive set of posts. For moderation to work, you have to move to a threaded system where replies are kept with the original posts, thus making it possible for individual mini-discussions to move up and down in a hierarchy.

It's a totally different way of working, and I like FR's strictly chronological system better.

D

[general_re]

It's a totally different way of working, and I like FR's strictly chronological system better.

To each his own, I guess. Personally, I'd much prefer a nested-type display, a la Slashdot - it just makes it easier for me to follow the flow of a post and the replies to it, and the replies to the replies. And Slashdot does give you the option of having a flat display, in chrono order, like FR does.

Although, I'd imagine that sorting all the posts requires a fair amount of server-side work on a busy site, so I can see why there might not be much of a push to implement it.

[eno_]

It's less that I want a Slashdot-like system than I want to filter out the shills. Shilling is an identifiable activity, and the perps are easy to spot, just like the Birchers, the UFO people and other sources of thread pollution. In fact, it might make an interesting study to data-mine FR archives, run them through a style analyzing program, and find out just which shills are unique and which are multiple instances of the same person. Then, if Jim Robinson wanted some insight into who wants to use FR as a PR/propaganda outlet, a look at his server logs might reveal some interesting info.

[sweetliberty]

All you have to do to view it the other way is to click on "view replies" and it will show the post and all replies.