I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the imprinting phenomenon again. What feels natural to folks depends on what they were first exposed to, and a surprisingly large number have trouble grasping that the other way is just as valid… And a surprisingly large number of programmers aren’t willing to make the effort to support multiple views and let individuals pick what works for them, believing that the answer which is obvious to them should be obvious to everyone.
It’s often very easy to claim “X considered harmful” and cite examples on EITHER side of these questions. (I could cite many examples where quote-and-reply was actively harming a discussion by encouraging people to quote out of context.) The fact that both modes persist is, itself, sufficient reason to believe that both have strong audiences, and the best tools are the ones that stay out of the way and let folks work the way they want to work.
Yeah, it’s more work. No, the lack of threading will probably not directly drive anyone off the board; it’ll just be a continuing annoyance and we’ll probably continue to grump about it whenever something reminds us of it… which will risk derailing topics.Yeah, it’s your system, and if you’d rather put up with the grumps than do the (admittedly nontrivial) redesign that’s your choice.
Thanks for hosting the BB discussion (BBbbs? BbBbS?), in any case. Remember, we complain because we like it and think it can be made better – if we didn’t think it was worthwhile, we wouldn’t stick around to make suggestions.