I agree with your idea - I've been working on a similar one for a while. However, what you write above could almost completely describe USENET news groups. L

I agree with your idea - I've been working on a similar one for a while. However, what you write above could almost completely describe USENET news groups. Learning what worked for USENET news and what did not will give you a starting place for this idea. For the most part, USENET discussions worked just as well as Reddit discussions according to the skill and motivation of the moderators, although that was the very early net and most of those involved were educated white men, not teenagers or nations engaging in information warfare. I'm continuing to work on a design for a federated discussion system just because I think the world needs discussion boards that aren't bound by national law or corporate desire any more than necessary. However, I think the original intent of the sidewiki stuff was slightly different. That said, they could be a combined system, with one presentation of the various groups/subs/channels being via a reddit like website, and another being a side bar attached to a web browser window. It depends on what is being discussed.