Yep, you nailed it. We also sort by what you haven't read, so you'll scroll past each article, then you'll be able to search for it because you know it exists.
We've experimented with an array of different hieratical and graph structures, but they all grow stale and misleading.
The issue with written instructions is that people hide it in nested folders, deep outlines, and walls of text. This creates a death spiral, why write when no-one reads. I've been experimenting with different solutions to visible internal documentation and are about to release the culmination of my efforts in a product called Triqla. http://triqla.com
This BEST stuff looks great and I'm looking forward to using it. But it will be a nightmare to search for if this stuff takes off. You should consider changing it to something more unique.