Not stupid .. you must be new :) In this page (that most make their homepage after time.) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/browse?ao=0 the most recently updated article/reply gets moved to the top of the list.
bump and bttt (back to the top)keeps the more interesting articles up where people will see them. You also mark a page list this for later review (it gets put into your My Comments page) this way as well.