You can always alert the person in a thread you are commenting on that you are starting a new comment. start it, then give a link to the location. Clunky, but at least the thread can be "born again" in another location and the person you are responding to gets an email alert. Posts can get very big, but I much prefer reading through conversations, then start in at the newest comments first kind of thing. sometimes I'll ask-are you responding to this or something else? just another comment to add to a long thread but helpful for clarification. Sometimes, I will also not comment but point up comments I want to see closer to the thread start. So keep that in mind...

I recently had the same problem. My reply to their reply missed the reply that they replied to. Some software is better than others at tracking, but then you lose or gain totally different features. Quoting and citing both help.

As for the more basic problem, I have been in online discussions for 30 years now; and some threads just take on a life of their own. Some minor point will catch attention; and the topic will fork off. At that point, a new topic would be appropriate; but even for people who obsess about whether second-handers can be producers, creating a new topic is an extra step, when all you want to do is comment. Additionally, even among the individualists here, you find hugs and kumbaya cluttering up threads.