You could just use the number of upvotes on an article. It would still require a code change, but I don’t think we need a new source of data separate from upvotes, categories, and the existing promotion.
What role do you have in mind for Discussion posts that you don’t think should also hold for Main posts? (On your original conception of ‘Discussion’ and ‘Main’.) Main-level posts like the Sequences also generally turn into active discussions, so I’m not clear on what is supposed to set Discussion apart.
I agree that tags probably make more sense. I’m still not clear on what it means for a post or its comments to be ‘only discussion’. Is the idea that the OP in a Discussion post is supposed to be as contentless as possible? Or is there something special about some comments that makes them Discussion comments, and others not?
All right, then how about we have a “promotion” axis separate from the “category” axis? Is there enough volume on the site for that, already?
You could just use the number of upvotes on an article. It would still require a code change, but I don’t think we need a new source of data separate from upvotes, categories, and the existing promotion.
That would require a code change.
What role do you have in mind for Discussion posts that you don’t think should also hold for Main posts? (On your original conception of ‘Discussion’ and ‘Main’.) Main-level posts like the Sequences also generally turn into active discussions, so I’m not clear on what is supposed to set Discussion apart.
The difference would be that it’s only discussion, so you know what to expect.
Actually, a single Promotion axis plus tags would probably work better.
I agree that tags probably make more sense. I’m still not clear on what it means for a post or its comments to be ‘only discussion’. Is the idea that the OP in a Discussion post is supposed to be as contentless as possible? Or is there something special about some comments that makes them Discussion comments, and others not?
Not much, no. What originally set me off was the type error of ‘promoted—main—discussion’, which seems like an axis that’s taking two right angles.
Having three stages of promotion, plus tags, should be sufficient. At that, articles already have tags; we just need to use them a little better.
Remember, LW has no budget for non-essential features. Or even for essential ones. So, just click on “Main”, it already takes you to Promoted.