If you look closely at that thread, you'll see that I participated in it. I've been complaining about this for ages (hence the "rant" in my title).

I'm not convinced that the site documenation team have got this one right (in fact I'm convinced we're wrong and might edit that faqlett). I once asked vroom about this, he said that there were several reasons why they did it this way when they were designing the site, but didn't elaborate on what they were. Anyway he told me that that wasn't the reason why they did it like that, although it was probably a "useful side benefit". Unfortuntely all this was done on the chatterbox, so there is no permenant record of the conversation (not one I can access anyway).

The converstaion took place about the time of the "100 sexiest women" fiasco. I assured the author of that post that he would not be able to amend the "root" of a discussion. He was able to edit his post as some types of "root node" are editible, I was amazed and demanded to know how he had done it as I thought it was impossible, that's when vroom told me that some "root nodes" are editibale and some aren't. I specifically asked if this possible imflamatory material which may appear on the front page after moderation was the reason. He told me it wasn't.

Sorry that this is such a rambly node, but I couldn't remember where the converstaion took place and was looking for the nodes involved (which I just remember don't exist)

Regards.

Nuance