My main concern, however, [is] new users/people unfamiliar with LW mistakenly thinking the comments are chronological when they aren't, and being confused or getting the wrong impression of the flow of discussion.
Which is important if you think that comments in separate threads usually rely on flow? Aren't those comments overwhelmingly in threads?
Default settings are what you see when you're not logged in; they should conform to the expectations of outsiders.
Default settings are what you see when you're new; they should be the setting most likely to convince you to stay around. Our best comments on any thread are generally the top rated ones.
Sure enough, here is a concrete example of the kind of thing I was talking about:
I find it hard to follow the debate on Less Wrong. I think because it isn't laid out chronologically and you have to search for where the debate is going.
This person is of course referring to my debate with Rolf Nelson. Presumably, they are not logged in and are seeing the comment thread through the default "Popular" setting -- and are understandably confused as hell, just as I was the first time. I haven't checked, but knowing the way the Popular sorting option ...
Following along from Louie's post and the discussion around it…
How should new visitors to Lesswrong see posts and comments ordered and filtered? (Assume we'll address the new visitors should be introduced to the site issue.) These will remain settings that are easily changed, but how should they start?
Current defaults:
Promoted posts, ordered by recency is our most prominent post list.
Comments are sorted by "Popular", which is Top with a very strong ageing of points (so recently voted comments rise to the top of the list, and very high voted comments fairly quickly drop away).
Options seeded in comments by me below, my karma balance at bottom. Please vote on at least one "Posts:" comment and one "Comments:" comment.