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Why are threads ordered by most recently responded to? Why when a new post gets created, is the least recently responded to post removed? Is the likelihood of a response supposed to indicate the interest of a post? Most importantly, how should an imageboards posts be ordered? Could they introduce a voting system that didn't turn it into a Reddit-esc insider tradele? Or a bump button to bump a post without responding to it?

on most image boards you can sort by bump order, reply count, creation date, number of files, etc. In a sense, bumping a thread *is* your vote for that thread. You see, the thread order on an imageboard could be considered antithetical to something like reddit. On reddit or other content aggregators, people tend to vote for posts that they agree with. This promotes a hive mentality and an echo chamber. That isn't exactly the case on an imageboard. Somebody could post something that people disagree with wildly, to such a degree that they feel the need to respond to and thus bump the thread. This is why some boards are prone to bait threads, wherein the OP knows that given the unpopular opinion in their post they will receive replies. You could argue that this fosters more interesting discussion whereby people argue with each other rather than agree and perhaps (albeit rarely) come to an agreement. This isn't always the case though--there is some hive mind still present on a board. If you routinely see something at the top of the board, it could be that it's a common interest shared by many, such as a daily programming thread, or a general thread centered around emacs. Last, the bump order reflects the relevance of current events. People want to engage with a topical thread that has some element of timeliness. There are other examples and scenarios but you get it. For what it is worth I think the imageboard thread format, for all it's weaknesses, is still superior to most voting systems. The strongest action you can take against a thread you disagree with is simply to not respond to it at all and I think that says something.

How do you intend to create these voting or bumping systems without introducing an identity like a user account? Without that, they would be highly abused: at least you can sort of tell if I used a bot to autobump the threads I liked. Almost no imageboards dare to force accounts on users, since it's almost betraying an unwritten expectation. and leave your name where you came from, you newbie

To be pedantic, it's bump order, not reply order. You can reply without bumping a thread by putting "sage" in the email field. It's polite to sage a thread when posting an off-topic reply or if you feel that after your reply, there is no more discussion to be had and you don't want to prolong the life of the thread (for example, if someone makes a thread asking for a resource, you may provide the resource and sage the thread. If you were the OP, you may thank the person who provided the resource with a saged reply). People will also sometimes sage a thread to indicate that they feel negatively about the thread ("sage goes in all fields"). Newly bumped threads appear first because those are where the most recently active discussions tend to be. The reason threads are deleted when they're bumped off is partly historical, partly philosophical. Early textboards (precursors to imageboards) did this for technical limitations - it was more expensive back then to run a site that retained every post. But many people like the ephemeral quality of text/imageboards and how it affects board culture, so most imageboards continue using this feature.

>>11320 >>11321 >>11322 Wow, thanks, this is useful. I find sorting by new has better quality posts than sorting by any other method, but I can see why there is a bump order.

>>11319 Threads should obviously be in alphabetical order Present Day, Present Time! AHAHAHAHAHA!