A Quick List of the Problems with Reddit-Style Forums
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Conversations naturally happen in a chronological sequence, not a "most popular highlights" sequence. This automatically makes a Reddit-style conversation hard to follow because it is unnatural. Conversation isn't supposed to be a TV spot, and while you might think we'll appreciate you saving us time, we don't. We're not on the forums to save time.
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Comments that receive early upvotes completely drown out newer ones with potentially better content, especially if they aren't replying to a previously upvoted post. Much like how in the previous chronological format, posts beyond the 3rd page rarely have much interaction, in the Reddit format no one looks past the first few top comments.
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Even with a "sort by recent" feature in the site, these problems will always still exist because a good many other users will never switch from the Reddit format.
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Topics bumped via popularity pretty much ensure that no one will ever see the topic I'm writing right now, because we've already got a few popular topics around to keep it off the first page.
I suggest that the forums revert to a chronological format, but use a Reddit format for a sidebar that displays the top comments in a particular thread. That way, everyone reads the thread the same way, but good comments also aren't lost in 30+ sequential pages. Best of both worlds.
