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I've thought about this before as well, particularly when I've administered or moderated various forums (frequently related to MMORPGs, which might skew the sample).

Scoring of threads/posts seems like a fairly intuitive solution to the designer. But users / members frequently have a different agenda, which means that the tools won't always work as intended depending on the community.

"Conversation by community" also seems like a feature, not a bug, from where I sit. If enough different people self-organize into nano-parties (in a political sense), then you've really fostered something interesting and useful, or at least potentially so.

Hey Kyle. I was wondering if you would be available to discuss your experience managing various online forums with me (email or phone, whatever works). I recently built a tool that has niche traction in the space and we are considering a more direct step in that direction. I would appreciate speaking with someone who manages these kinds of communities.

leo at groupie dot mobi

I'm on the fence when it comes to the bit on "conversation by community"; I included it because it's unlike traditional in-person group conversation, but I haven't been able to figure out yet if it might be beneficial or harmful to conversation in the long-term, or neither.

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