Theoretically, you could reduce this to the point such that the page only shows a pointer to a root node when some element in that thread has been changed or updated.

But then once you go to the thread, how do you know what to look for if you are trying to find the new information, unless you've been reloading the thread consistently?

I like the idea of "subscribing" to a given root node, and receiving /msgs when it is updated -- an idea that's been tossed around before.

Also, your idea would make it much harder to personality-vote on posts and we can't have that. :D

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