Thanks. Your post is about 20x better than the OP since it contains evidence and logic and a name.

The headline above the replies is “Replies are listed “Best First’” so it’s perhaps less confusing than the OP wants us to think. It is a fairly common default on many sites and it’s more clearly labeled here than on some.

That said, I think there should be an option to browse chronologically at the top. That’s how I have my settings, as you suggest. :P But I usually read entire threads if it’s a topic I care about. Folks just passing by looking for specific answers don’t. I don’t know for the casual, non-monk reader if having the best on top is objectively better or not. I can see arguments for both so affording both with ease seems best to me.

That said, I don’t demand free work from others—I still haven’t broken in my commit bit—so my opinion is just a data point for Gods.

The real "problem" is far more fundamental and wouldn't be changed by chronological order.

It's the old ideological war between linear° and threaded discussion boards.

And as usual people want the cake and eat it too.

(Threaded discussions with linear order? WTF )

Please note that SO is limiting to 3 "levels" depth. (Question/Answer/Comment- And I am always confused by that structure)

IMHO the only possible answer is a "flexible" adjustment to the needs of the current reader.

I.e. DHTML to optionally show the sub-tree overview like in RAT, reordering the replies, folding and navigating them.

There is for sure no right order for threads, if one reply provokes a large subtree, then the next direct reply is buried behind, even if it's the "second best" reply.

Folding is the only alternative which comes to mind.

BTW: I'm still waiting for an example where another answer was implicitly referenced without linking or naming the author.

I remember rare instances of people talking about "the former reply".

But most replies here are from regulars, which don't do this.

So it's not happening "often"

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice}

°) compare phpbb if you don't know what linear boards are, or look at WP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversation_threading

> I still haven’t broken in my commit bit

In case you are interested ... ;-P

The replies are generated in list replies

    
my $orderby= $VARS->{notesortorder}
       ||  $settings->{orderby}
       ||  "createtime";
[download]

The sort order is labeled in shownote

  24: my $orderby= $VARS->{notesortorder}
  25:    ||  $settings->{orderby}
  26:    ||  "createtime";
  27: 
  28: my %orderby_labels = (
  29:     'createtime'      => 'Oldest First',
  30:     'createtime desc' => 'Newest First',
  31:     'reputation desc' => 'Best First'
  32: );
  33: 
  34: my $replies_info;
  35: if ( $orderby_labels{$orderby} ) {
  36:     my $fmt_replies_info = htmlcode( 'formatRepliesInfo','', $NO
+DE );
  37:     if ( $fmt_replies_info =~ /^[^0]/ ) { # something other than
+ zero
  38:         $replies_info = qq(<span class="note-ordering">Replies a
+re listed '$orderby_labels{$orderby}'.</span>);
  39:     }
  40: }
  41:
[download]

List replies is called later.

47:       htmlcode('list replies')
[download]

So I think you can change line 38 to show a select box changing $VARS->{notesortorder} and performing a reload.

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery FootballPerl is like chess, only without the dice}