The erratic comments structure

This is a perennial problem for all forum designers. You could add more levels to threads but that also makes it difficult to follow when people refer to or answer questions which may be asked in different ways or with different elements in different parts of the thread. In natural (real-time) discussion, our brain seems to work both time-wise and by category, sorting different topics and information into categories but at the same time keeping some sort of linearity. It also cross-links different bits of information which relate to each other, resulting in (if you try to put it on paper) a highly complex web of topics, information and ideas which is sometimes called a 'mind-map'. It might be feasible to map a discussion on screen this way but it would be very hard to follow and the kind of processing required to break down even well-structured human comments into components which could be indexed and cross linked takes us to the very edge of theories of semantics and language analysis - and beyond. One solution, perhaps, is to for discussion owners and participants to insist upon strict topic observance (or to legislate for that), but that would destroy much of the life and, for me the delight, of a MyLot discussion.

I think that perhaps a small numbering system. Each comment gets a letter, and then a number that goes up, so if you lose the track of where it came from and what was being meant, you could find the spot the writer hit reply from. Since this is a new comment, it might start as E, since I already see A, B, C, and D already going. Most poeple could ignore that if they wanted, but if D comment 2 wasnt making sense, you could at least try and track it to D1. Or we just need to get better about referring back to what we were responding too!

This has not created any problem for me, possibly because most posts have a moderate list of responses and are easy to follow. However, I do the point that you are making Arthur. If someone submits a post that becomes extremely popular and several members interact with each other below various comments it could become very difficult.

Definitely not speed reading, that is for sure.More like people standing around all gabbing.

@Owlwings has said it all. This post is worth @GoAskAlex 's attention.

I know exactly what you mean. It is not much of a problem if a post only has a few comments. But if you go on one of @jabo posts or @crazyhorseladycx then it can be a nightmare trying to find where their response is to a comment you have left on a thread on their discussion. Sometimes I have just had to settle for reading their response in my email notification as I couldn't find the response because it was buried in a long thread of responses :(

It can be a bit of a search to find the newest comments as you never know if they will be on the top, on the bottom, or stuck in the middle somewhere. I am not sure how the system decides where to place them.

I completely understand what you are saying. There are quite a few people that like to interact back and forth, and that makes the thread long and confusing, especially when another person comes in and tries to respond to a variety of things that previously were discussed. I have even gotten confused when reading through these threads, and some of them I was even participating on them.

And I thought I was mistaken. lol

You hit that right on the top of the nail. I've tried to follow along on discussion threads but I always end up confused as to who is replying to who and after that I just give up. Somewhat mind boggling.

Sometime I do not have a clue to what they are saying so I just like it and move on.

This is one area where I prefer the other site. All the responses are in chronological order, with any comments on those responses directly underneath.

'tis all mind-bogglin', aint it? kinda like jumpin' in the midst 'f a conversation 'n ya jest know yer lost coz ya missed somethin'. i spent 'bout 30 minutes the other night openin' up all the discussions/comments jest to figure where i'd gone off track.

Very easy to quickly get mired in a sea of comments, but hey - if it was easy, everybody'd be at it

Yep - my eyes are going all over the place - getting work out for sure - but not always sure of where to go! I don't doubt I've missed a lot of "something".

The system could be improved but how? Not an easy task.

theres a different way still to this go to your store if you pay bills on line they will pay the bill for a small fee it also works make sure you take the bill with you it has the account numbers they need

I agree, i am just getting the hang of it, and find pressing the blue more comments text helps to follow conversations within the main body....