More important than being able to talk to each other is being able to see who's talking to one, I think.
a) Notification when someone replies directly to one's comment.
b) Some way to easily find new comments on a thread. Instead of marking comments read, let me click a page-level button to "reset new marks". Couple that with sorting the front-page by 'number of recent comments'. Especially in periods when the front-page changes infrequently it'll allow users to follow discussions after they've read the submission.
Let me find interesting users and filter them for potential co-founders.
c) Show me users whose submissions and comments I upmod most and who I talk to the most.
d) Provide tags for me to add on my profile: location, horizon to startup, areas of interest, etc. Allow others to set constraints and highlight for them users who match those constraints/tags.
a) Notification when someone replies directly to one's comment.
b) Some way to easily find new comments on a thread. Instead of marking comments read, let me click a page-level button to "reset new marks". Couple that with sorting the front-page by 'number of recent comments'. Especially in periods when the front-page changes infrequently it'll allow users to follow discussions after they've read the submission.
Let me find interesting users and filter them for potential co-founders.
c) Show me users whose submissions and comments I upmod most and who I talk to the most.
d) Provide tags for me to add on my profile: location, horizon to startup, areas of interest, etc. Allow others to set constraints and highlight for them users who match those constraints/tags.