Can you think of alternatives to voting, though? Sorting always requires some curating system that isn't random but I can't think of any that would be robust to group consensus

I can imagine small communities spread across. By virtue of its size, there are high chances of topics staying relevant too.

I am concerned about small bubbles though. Discussions in single instances that never bounce across to similar communities in other instances but I suppose that's putting the cart before the horse

How is community engagement better in a interconnected forum compared to a single forum consisting of all the participants? I'm asking out of ignorance

How would cross community discussions take place?