I guess I don't like seeing an empty box, either. I appreciate the 'shoutbox' style display of the latest posts right in your face on the home page. It's a preview of what's to come in the conversation at hand, and streams the latest information. Even if I've already read it.

From what I gather you're saying there are some technological hurdles when it comes to stretching that box and adding more than five comments on demand. I dig that. But to dismiss a design choice because "if you want more than 5, you're going to want as much as possible" is kind of flawed. I'm not suggesting i'm a lazy fuck that doesn't want to scroll through a bunch of information, but rather have it spoon fed to me. I'm suggesting that it's a slicker design model, and works better for the average human when you're not inundating them with information. That is to say, the snippets and hints at current conversation right now (or rather, as they were) is awesome. I thought that was something very different from traditional forums - something you argued for. The "what is happening right now," kind of thing. What I was suggesting is that maybe five is too few. But five also looks good, so rather than just asking to bump up the limit, I was curious if a user could just tack on a few more lines.

It's kind of a coin flip. Yes, I can click on the link directing me to a new list of every latest post from the past X days (or however many it ends up displaying). That makes sense. Or, I can watch web 2.0 magically extend that already convenient feature a little more, and ensure that yes, I did already see that latest post about the cats.

I don't think the idea of rendering more information is a poor design choice. When it comes to communicating information (graphically, anyway), you don't want to overwhelm your audience. I feel overwhelmed with the giant list.