It would seem some folks don't like the idea, but I for one think it is a hell of a good idea! Maybe the display of the nesting counter could be made optional, but I like it for these reasons:

1. It makes the structure of the replies absolutely obvious. The current system I find somewhat confusing and I often group things with a highlighter - OK, I am old enough that I still like paper!
2. Sometimes in a response I like to refer to multiple responses. Using the counter would make this very simple, particularly when one monk makes several responses in the one thread.

I could add another suggestion to this as well, but I think this would seriously overload the server. Wouldn't it be really neat if as a thread was being displayed it would note whether the particular message has been seen before! It would mean a huge amount of extra database munging and although it would be nice I think it may not be too practical.

jdtoronto