Based on the Lamernews source, I did a small proof-of-concept for a backend with Node.js, Redis and Promisses. Haven't time to release it, but I might write a small blog post about what I did so far.
Nice write-up.
"Specifically, while there are various solutions such as Ender and browserify and that can wrap CommonJS modules seamlessly for the browser, they are in some ways even worse of a solution than Sprockets because they are completely useless for packaging up CSS/LESS/SASS. CommonJS also currently does not define any package.json extension that allows components to expose anything other than Javascripts for other components to consume."
The combination Sprockets (Asset Manager by Middleware) and CommonJS modules, looks like a nice alternative to Require.js. So, what do you think?
Hmm.. I like the idea too of improving UX here. I think the voting is not too bad: https://github.com/antirez/lamernews/blob/master/public/js/app.js
What I think might be more helpful is adding 'tags' to a topic, such that you quickly can scan what topics are interesting to you, similar to SO.