Having the +/- on the left side seems like the natural place for showing/hiding a sub-tree. However, when you do this, the + is left aligned with sub-trees at the same depth. This is fine if all sub-trees have descendents, and thus a +/-. But, if a sub-tree without descendents is above a sub-tree with descendents at the same level it appears as though the lower sub-tree is a descendent of the upper instead of a sister. For example, if the following are at the same level it looks like this:

   Re: Great subject[^19] 24 hours ago [him]
   +/-Re: Great subject(1) 11 hours ago [her]
[download]

But it would be more natural if the subjects at the same depth were aligned like this:

   Re: Great subject[^19] 24 hours ago [him]
+/-Re: Great subject(1) 11 hours ago [her]
[download]

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