as a followup to richardhenry’s suggestions, I think it would be nice to have a “quote this” button. but, then again, I guess it would tend to make a thread longer to read since you would be doubling the amount of text, so nevermind.
i have mentioned this before, but if you could reply to an answer and it show up just beneath that answer, slightly indented, then there would be almost no need for the @replies….except for maybe within the reply thread, but i guess you could reply to a reply thread as well. it wouldn’t necessarily have to be collapsible in the beginning, that might be something to change when the threads get bigger. i think this might also solve the flarguments problem that has been discussed before.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with people using the @reply method—i use it, too. it’s just that it can get confusing in the longer threads where you have to scroll back up because you forgot what so-and-so is @replying about.