True, I've seen more than one case where someone got upset because they thought the reply was aimed at them, when it was really just aimed at the thread. 

I also visit a forum that has had a lot of good Poser freebies posted called http://www.faeriewylde.com

At FaerieWylde they give you an option.  At the bottom of the page you can select to reply to the thread, without specifying any one message that you are replying to.  You can also select on "quote" in a particular message, to include that message in your post.  The included message is put in a box, so it is easy to tell which part of the new message is yours, and which is their's.

One way to keep the forums from getting too confusing is to view them in "flat" mode instead of "threaded" mode.  The icons are near the top right corner of the page.  The threaded mode just confuses things, because it hides all but the one message you are reading, and shows links as replies to specific messages, even though they were actually replies to the thread.

Maybe we should make this suggestion at Site Recommendations and Suggestions It couldn't hurt.

Yes, the moderators seem to be strangely absent.  They usually respond when I send them an email, by clicking on "contact us".  Still, it would be nice if they at least read the posts in Site Recommendations and Suggestions  and responded to them.  One reason they are so quiet could be they got tired of answering the same questions over and over again.  Most of the questions for them seemd to be centerered around "What will be the new changes?", "When will they take place?", and "Will I still get paid for my submissions?".  I know that would get on my nerves by the third week.  Of course they could just be silent because they don't have anything to say, that they haven't said several times before.

            -David