I like a variation on kudra's method, namely: add my username, and a short description of my node in parentheses. I also condense multiple Re:'s into a single, using digits to indicate how many there were. See the title of this node for an example. :-)

bbfu
Seasons don't fear The Reaper.
Nor do the wind, the sun, and the rain.
We can be like they are.

I see the (username) prefix as excessive vanity now. It was cool at the time when we didn't have reference-by-node-number, and no searching-by-user. But we've added both of those since. No point now to have a unique name of an article, so putting your username out there just makes me think you're vain, and it wastes valuable communication space.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

I find it useful because search results still don't return the name of the author. Searching by user isn't exactly the same, because I might not have a specific user in mind, but still prefer to read an answer by someone I know gives good answers over the 52 answers by anon monk.

For what it's worth, I consider adding my name a work-around and would much rather have that extra bit of search information returned and leave off my name.

As for original topic v. new topic, I like to have both pieces of information. My ideal solution, of course, would be to have search return 'in reply to' and 'in thread' (and possibly 'nesting depth') so that the title would only need to convey the topic of the message, not additional historic information. (These could be super-search checkboxes or user settings to keep results simple when desired.)