(2019-07-22) Hon Flat Vs Threaded Discussions

Adrian Hon on Flat vs. Threaded Discussions. I don’t think that flat discussions, as typically implemented by forums like Discourse or Metafilter, are working well for communities where there is serious disagreement about how discussions should unfold.

For a long time, I believed flat discussions were generally superior to threaded ones. They helped promote coherent debate rather than encouraging groups of users to spin off on wild tangents, never to be seen again. In other words, Metafilter good, Reddit bad.

But I’ll confess – I’m spending a lot more time on Reddit than Metafilter these day

I don’t think that flat discussions, as typically implemented by forums like Discourse or Metafilter, are working well for communities where there is serious disagreement about how discussions should unfold.

Flat discussions makes problems stick out more because everyone is forced to read them.

In threaded forums, these sidetracks would end up downvoted and quarantined in their own threads.


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