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)

you were never on 4chan before captchas, were you?

That was hilarious.

I still have an archive of those files somewhere.

I think this was my "We've made it!" moment with 4chan. When people are writing viruses tailored to your service, you've clearly done something right.

...Or wrong.

You'll also be supporting the site.

Red squares. Red squares everywhere.

It's definitely a shame about the captcha, but like a couple of people have already said, it's necessary.

I've personally found myself deleting some comments not worth being said, usually at the captchas. I can only imagine this goes for others and in other situations.

Here, the quality check is rather the wish to actually contribute.