User blog comment:Kirkburn/Technical Update: August 17, 2016/@comment-1757994-20160817230845/@comment-24473195-20160817235234

>Discussions seem to be forums except:

Pretty much

> discussions can be sorted by upvotes

I think this would be a good feature to add to general forums, because it can help someone find the right answer if they ask a question.

I was actually thinking of creating a user script for that, but then thought it might not be worth the trouble.

> But why have both if they're mostly the same?

They fulfill different needs. It is a bit like a swimming pool, some people may go there to have fun and socialize, while professional swimmers may go there to train and improve their skills. Having both at the same time is just asking for trouble.

Forum threads are not easily findable by most users and user talk pages are just user-unfriendly. Personally, I think that moderating discussions must be a hellish unenviable job in popular wikis.