Mastodon really needs a "sort replies by number of stars" feature.
It's depressing the number of times I've seen an intelligent post get completely derailed by an early comment sub-thread argument full of unsourced assertions that eventually devolves into a pointless slanging match.
Sort-by-stars would let the useful, insightful, even the entertaining, sub-threads float the top.
@naught101 I think a better approach for this particular problem might be better threading.
Think if the replies to one particular post could be collapsed at the press of a button.
@olives yeah, that would also help. It it would still be good to have a way to (optionally) sort by socially-aggregated value. Having the most insightful replies at the to and the meaningless junk at the bottom would be better for everyone.
@naught101 Hmm... Maybe, they don't want to turn it into a very points driven system, like those large platforms.
I can see where you're coming from though.
@olives Yeah, I get that. It potentially also increases the risk of brigading, I guess.