LW does more to bring its past into the present than any other site I’ve used. I’m thinking that this is partly structure, and partly that the users consider its past posts (much less so with the comments) to be important.
I might be an advanced user—I’m able to use LW and I think I’ve found the major features. [1] On the other hand, I would not have been able to identify the site as being from the style of a particular operating system.
My history goes back to usenet, which is why I keep mentioning that the site needs trn or the equivalent. Still, the way comments are presented is the Least Awful I’ve seen on the web. Trn or slrn might be the kind of thing you mean by advanced comments/post management.
The other thing I think would do the most to keep weaving the past into the present is a better search system. It would help if I could just do a string search which was limited to the posts from a particular user. And if there were a way to get search results arranged chronologically. As far as I can tell, they’re arranged randomly. Something like the advanced search from Google Groups would be really helpful. It can take 10 or 15 minutes for me to find a comment if I manage it at all, and it’s apt to feel like luck.
Only having Recent Comments for LW proper and for LW:Discussion rather than being able to choose Recent Comments for particular threads is of mixed value. I think it does make the site more like one conversation for those who want to put in a lot of time, but that means it’s less useful for those who don’t want to put in that much time and a temptation to kill time for some of the rest.
[1] The site has an abstract resemblance to a bit from one of Doris Piserchia’s novels (Mr. Justice?), in which a school for brilliant children doesn’t offer a map of the buildings, just a map of the local geography. The students are expected to figure out where the buildings are supposed to be.
LW does more to bring its past into the present than any other site I’ve used. I’m thinking that this is partly structure, and partly that the users consider its past posts (much less so with the comments) to be important.
I might be an advanced user—I’m able to use LW and I think I’ve found the major features. [1] On the other hand, I would not have been able to identify the site as being from the style of a particular operating system.
My history goes back to usenet, which is why I keep mentioning that the site needs trn or the equivalent. Still, the way comments are presented is the Least Awful I’ve seen on the web. Trn or slrn might be the kind of thing you mean by advanced comments/post management.
The other thing I think would do the most to keep weaving the past into the present is a better search system. It would help if I could just do a string search which was limited to the posts from a particular user. And if there were a way to get search results arranged chronologically. As far as I can tell, they’re arranged randomly. Something like the advanced search from Google Groups would be really helpful. It can take 10 or 15 minutes for me to find a comment if I manage it at all, and it’s apt to feel like luck.
Only having Recent Comments for LW proper and for LW:Discussion rather than being able to choose Recent Comments for particular threads is of mixed value. I think it does make the site more like one conversation for those who want to put in a lot of time, but that means it’s less useful for those who don’t want to put in that much time and a temptation to kill time for some of the rest.
[1] The site has an abstract resemblance to a bit from one of Doris Piserchia’s novels (Mr. Justice?), in which a school for brilliant children doesn’t offer a map of the buildings, just a map of the local geography. The students are expected to figure out where the buildings are supposed to be.