[ivarious]

>Posts linking their replies in the header has been a feature for a very, very long time.

Before, that was add-on/userscript feature. Since moot adopted them into 4chan's codebase, everyone has it.

>only trolls and candyasses pay attention to the number of replies on your post

Exactly. This feature encourages and rewards trolls and people who fish for replies.

>There isn't any kind of long-term karma game like on other sites. 4chan is still content-heavy and shit posts are still looked down upon by the larger community.

The dynamic of the discussion changes though. Even a slight nod matters in a long run considering that 4chan's culture evolves in a very rapid pace, thanks to its ephemerality and anonymity.

>

Come on.

[kakarot]

After Hacker News, 4chan is the only non-specific community I enjoy, due to how it manages threads it's easy to sift past shitposts and find the good stuff. All of the problems you present aren't really representative of the actual 4chan experience. I'm sorry you haven't figured out how to make it work for you.