Question: It can be difficult to navigate the magnitude of answers available on certain types of posts. These posts usually span multiple pages and by definition hide a lot of information. 

While reading all the answers is a great way to understand the issues, there are posts with 5+ pages of answers. There is no way that most users have read all the answers (Some? Maybe), but most people want to be more efficient when going through these types of posts. 

You don't read a scientific paper first. You read the abstract continue from there. What I am suggesting is an "abstract" for these confusing, and/or controversial posts.

From the last 2 months, these are the posts that come to mind that would benefit from an "abstract" of some kind

* [Upvotes on questions will now be worth the same as upvotes on answers](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/391250/upvotes-on-questions-will-now-be-worth-the-same-as-upvotes-on-answers?noredirect=1#comment742785_391250)
* [Update: an agreement with Monica Cellio](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/340906/update-an-agreement-with-monica-cellio?cb=1)

**Is there a better way to navigate through all the answers and confusing parts of the post in a way that will allow others to understand the post and answers more clearly?** 

For clarity, this would not apply for your everyday Meta posts. This is only for those posts that produce multiple pages of answers. That heavily reduces which posts this would apply to.

Answer: 
### No.

Even if we could pretend that the views of loads of people could be neatly dropped into little "buckets" of predefined categories (which they can't), there is little benefit to this.

It could even be harmful, as people might then either stick to their own "bucket" (thus only hearing reinforcing opinions), or stick to the "opposite" bucket in order to go find people to fight with.

Not good.

If you don't have time to read all input on a subject, that's fine; you don't have to. Sorting it differently won't change that.

> 
> Moderators are probably the best source for a valid solution. They could monitor activity (or the site could and that would prompt moderators), and deem the post to be "categorized" as they see fit.
> 
> 
> 

I very much doubt it.

Besides, if *anyone's* going to categorise my views, it'll be me.
Well - these are exceptional times.

Under very normal circumstances - I suspect there would be *significantly* less answers, and we'd be a little more aggressive over pruning non answers (as hard as it is to believe!).

In short, this isn't *normal*. 

I feel meta does poorly as a soapbox - and essentially that's roughly what a lot of these posts were. On the other hand - there was *no other place* we could discuss this and (while folks might be shocked to hear this), we ended up taking as light a hand as possible on moderation. 

Everyone has an opinion on hot issues - as evidenced by... well lots of answers and comments. 

These are not *simple* issues and there's a lot that I suspect folks can't and won't share. In the greater scheme of things - you're going to want to read the answers because the issue *matters* to you. 

In the grander scheme of things - you'd find that a lot of what happened in the last few months is useful in our collective memory (how so depends on where you stand). Its certainly had an effect on the relationship between the communities and the company. I suspect though that in the longer run, most folks wouldn't notice or remember individual posts.

And I certainly hope we can avoid more of this. Its been an 'interesting' 3 months.