Feature Request - Common discussions/arguments at top of page.
 

I don't know if this has a plugin, or not. Not sure what to search for.

Feature: Voted "most useful" posts appearing at the top of first, last, or all pages in a thread.

Surely many of you have seen threads that have exceeded 10 pages. They are mountains to read, and sift through. And often have the same info repeated several times. Some threads can exceed 100 pages. When you have members of a forum that ask you to refer to "previously answered" questions in such a thread, it is impossible to know where to find the posts referred to.

A moderator can split the thread, but then those answers are harder to find, buried deeper in the forum. A follower of the thread might recall a few key "search words", if they were so obliged to search for you. So your left with more repeated questions & answers, or repeated arguments in debates.

For sub-forums dedicated to specific debates, a sticky or "announcement" will usually do fine. Sort of like a FAQ, or "Index". However such threads/discussions may not warrant a discussion forum of their own.

A feature where you can vote to attach quotes (or links) to the top of the first page, highlighting repeatedly asked questions, or repeatedly used arguments, in order to keep from repeating old material may help. This may be better on the first page, or the last page, or you could just put it on all pages just to be sure.

Maybe if you could implement a ranking system. Members could rank a post within a thread, and a link to that post would be placed in an area viewable to new followers of that thread. You could limit the links to three to five, but [u]these posts would be a short summary of the thread thus far, or favorite posts within that thread/u].

This feature could be made infinitely more useful if you could link to posts outside of a thread. Say to older threads that covered the same or similar material. I am concerned about the complexity of how to manage external posts.