I loathe nested comments and vastly prefer inline quote previews and backlinks.
Then again, I'm biased.
Then again, I'm biased.
That's an understatement.
But seriously, I agree with everything you stand for in regards to how internet discussion should work. Flat discussion is vastly superior, even when weighing the negatives
But threading the text as well just makes long discussions difficult to follow and unreadable as the margin starts to get cramped.
Which on HN is apparently part of the reason they do it the way they do.
But this is of course one of those cases where they decided to make a choice, and they clearly favor the "top" structure.
Honestly I think they could have meshed the two better, though.
(check the user)