You don't need to go to an unthreaded format, with all the attendant clutter and such, to do that. All you have to do is bubble up threads that have had recent

You don't need to go to an unthreaded format, with all the attendant clutter and such, to do that. All you have to do is bubble up threads that have had recent messages to the top. That's why HN doesn't (or at least shouldn't) try something like that: it wouldn't be "Hacker News" anymore, so much as "Hacker Gossip" or whatev.