What is the top link now, “You’ve seen the best, now here’s the rest,” links not to the thread but to the main Straight Dope page, the page the link is on.
Sorry, link got scrambled somehow and it just punted back to the front page. Fixed now.
On the subject, I’m not sure a thread started by a now-banned poster (“Doper words to live by”) is the best way to encourage new people to join. Maybe swap that one out?
Why? Is the thread an interesting topic getting lots of response? Did the poster in question get banned for something he did in that thread, or something else? I don’t see a reason to remove it from threadspotting.
My understanding is that one of the main goals of Threadspotting is to attract new posters - “come see the interesting and humorous threads in the message board.” When the first thing a new person sees is “BANNED,” I think it detracts from that purpose by setting a negative tone.
It’s a pretty small thing and I don’t feel strongly about it. I figured given a choice between many threads, we might as well use one that doesn’t immediately raise questions about why people get banned around here.