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I feel like I might be out of touch. Most of the new forum software I run across (SimpleMachines, Vanilla) seem like they have some nifty features, but neither of them offer threaded discussions. Does anyone here have any ideas why? Threads are by far easier to do with web forum software than with NNTP/USENET, and yet we have threads in our email and threads in USENET.
I will say I praise Drupal. At least here we have threaded anything. Makes me wonder if maybe I should just use Drupal for everything, including every forum I would want to run.
Let he who is without a synax error throw the first exception.
Threading
Personally, I think threaded forums quickly grow obnoxious and unwieldy. All examples I've seen of highly threaded forums (slashdot, digg, livejournal blogs) become quite hard to follow. I am able to live with this Drupal system simply because the level of threading doesn't grow deep enough that it gets confusing.
Conversely, forums which stay "flat" are easier for me to follow. TheDailyWtf.com is a great example: they get anywhere from 50-200 comments on every post, and I'm able to follow the line of conversation much easier.
Maybe it's just me, but I like to follow all of the elements of a conversation, and threaded forums seem to distract from that ability.
Linear fails
This is what I was looking for, thanks. There is a rationale for linear forums vs. threaded forums. If you don't mind, allow me to pick out what I don't like about linear forums.
I'm sure you won't be surprised to find that I have the exact opposite problem. Unless people quote what they are responding to in a reply I cannot tell what is being responded to in a linear forum. In fact, this is the precise reason why I've never participated in any online forums. I usually have to wade through a bunch of comments along a thread of conversation I'm already done with to get to another post that is meaningful, and with that, I've found many forums suffer from some form of "rot" in this regard. A series of "me too" style/type posts can detract from real conversation.
I would argue that a comment is by far different from an actual discussion. Most comments do not build upon one another into a thread of actual conversation, and if that is the mode of the usual conversation out there then I would agree that a linear system would make the most sense.
What I like about threaded conversations is it allows me to see how a conversation develops and in what directions. Already on this site we've had discussions branch off in more than one direction, and noting that it has put our replies in a context which is meaningful.
Do we perhaps have a UI problem at this point? I for one would love to have collapsable threads via JavaScript, which would allow me to close off a thread when I'm done with it.
Perhaps the best course would be to do threading by default, but allow users to display things in a linear and chronological format, if they so choose (which would probably not work so well since people would either get out of the habit of quoting, or some would quote and others wouldn't . . . .)
Divergence
Perhaps some of my dislike comes from the fact that when a conversation grows heavily threaded, it is hard for me to keep up with all of the latest posts and follow the activity.
As for single-threaded conversations, quotes are absolutely almost always necessary.
As for the UI issue, I'm not really sure. I've never seen a forum that I really liked. I don't care for multi-threaded, and single-threaded isn't a ton better. Perhaps my problem is that I haven't seen a paradigm that I like. Once I see it, the UI discussion can happen.
Durpal Wins Again
After saying that I noticed that you can choose threaded vs flat with Drupal. Way to go Drupal!