Hops are flowers not fruit. I'm not sure which forum would be best for your inquiry.

It depends on how much you are harvesting and what sort of weather is in the near future.

As fluffy as they are when ripe they could really hold a lot of water on them, that could make drying without mold difficult...you would want a thin layer (1-2cones deep)with a moving air (fan)

If you have a lot of them that turns into a tremendous amount of space, they will dry off faster with no chance of molding on the plant, then you can keep them a bit more piled while curing.
But if they are already ripe/overripe and no decent weather in the near future....I can see the temptation to work with them wet as a last resort.

windfall_rob,

Thanks. I guess I came to the same conclusion. We had a dry day yesterday and it looks like today will be dry also so I will leave them hang till they are papery again and hopefully not too overripe.