I wouldn’t disagree with that, but it’s the same for any system.
Ironically, this is because I didn’t use the system correctly. 
You should see it on this post.
Okay, I can see it working now. Is this because you used “quote” instead of just “reply”? Our is it because you didn’t use “reply” and I only got the notification because you mentioned my name?
You got notified because I quoted you. I should have hit “reply” first, and then quoted your reply. Instead, I just hit “quote reply” without first hitting reply next to your post. Technically, you can still trace the conversation, though, by just hitting the up arrow in the corner of the quote.
Brad, I strongly agree with Aceofspades about the nesting. The current system is bizarre and very annoying, and interferes with clarity by scattering comments in chronological order rather than as a real conversation. It’s as if someone went to a party, in which lots of parallel conversations take place, and wrote about the party by quoting each person in the room in chronological order, instead of dividing the conversations into intelligible units.
Another thing, the notifications don’t seem to work reliably. Lately I have often received one or two notifications for posts, and then no more, in spite of many new comments.
Also, there is a peculiar problem which might be due to my browser or might be a problem on your end. When I open a post to check for new comments, I always get an old version of the post (without any new comments). Refreshing that version does not help. I have to hit “reply” and then refresh, and sometimes even that doesn’t work. And then if I go back and check the post later, it still shows an early version rather than the version I just saw last time I checked the comments.
Finally, I just noticed that the weekly science news stories don’t allow comments. This week’s report contains a very significant error:
“…they traced male DNA to a common male ancestor who lived 25,000 years ago…”
At least according to the Guardian story which is credited as its source, this statement lost a zero! A very important zero. As an aside, I don’t see why comments are not allowed on these stories, even if the author doesn’t have time to respond.
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The error has been fixed. Thanks for spotting it, Lou. It was an innocent typo.
Also, the notifications are tied to what interest level you have in a topic. If you comment on a topic (or create the topic), You will be notified about every post. Take a look at the bottom of each topic. You will see a button that either says, “watching”, “tracking”, “regular”, “muted”. If you are interested in a topic, make sure that button is set to “watching” (or “tracking”). These options are provided so that people can choose their own interest level, instead of being bombarded with every reply on every topic. We average 150 posts per week these days, and most people don’t want to be notified about all of them.
The refresh problem is almost certainly due to your browser, as I have never experienced a similar issue (and never heard of the problem from others). I use Chrome. How about you?
To your point about threaded conversations—If you are reporting on a party with multiple conversations, your point is valid. However, each topic is meant to be a report on one conversation, not several conversations at once. Part of the problem is how often our commenters go off on semi-tangential points in the middle of another conversation. Theoretically, they should use the “reply as new topic” button for that.
I appreciate your feedback. Our system is not perfect, and I’m glad for honest opinions. If you continue to have significant technical issues, please send me a private message.
I moved a post to an existing topic: Adam, Eve, and human population genetics: addressing critics—Poythress, chimpanzees, and DNA identity (Part 1) | The BioLogos Forum
Hi Brad. The Discourse system works satisfactory. I just had some small difficulties to get used to it, but no real problems.
Brad,
Thanks for the help getting to this spot. The Discourse System is well thought out. Kudos!
I am wondering if under Gracious Dialogue, it would be beneficial to also point the reader to 1 Peter 3:15. I use it as a reminder to myself every time I engage in discourse with a believer or nonbeliever.
Thanks again, Carl
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I like the preview pane, the ability to modify font (B, I) and to put in links… good job!!!
Brad, the new system is a significant improvement, Thank you.
The only problem I can think of is that the Private Message feature is no longer working. Please fix if possible.
Roger
No comments to make, actually.
I have one suggestion. I generally read the blog posts from the discourse site, not from the Biologos main page. I think it would be nice if the post on the discourse site included the author’s bio somewhere, or at least the author’s name and title (theology professor, geneticist, etc.). Otherwise I have to click on the bottom link over to the main page to find out who is writing, which is kind of important to know, at least for me. And my internet is crummy so the fewer pages I have to wait to load the better.
Hi @Christy! Let me first say that I SO appreciate your contributions here. 
So my answer will probably be disappointing to you, but we actually hope that people don’t do what you are doing, which is substitute the Forum for actually reading the blogs. I know that your internet situation is not ideal, but if people don’t click on the actual posts, we can’t track readership effectively. However, in your situation, I would recommend looking for the author in the comments themselves (we try hard to have the author participate in the comments). That doesn’t show a full bio, but at least you know the author’s name.
I will try not to cry too much over the pain of it all. 
Thanks anyway, Brad. I know you can’t please all the special snowflakes all the time.
This is the first one that is difficult for me Ok old lady not good with computer websites , i click reply to join in the conversation then up pops a bunch of icons make a choice i don’t have face book or a twitter all i know is email also instead of being able to reply to the one i just read it gives me a bunch of links to choose from . HOW do i just reply to the one i read … sorry old aint no fun BIG grin
@smknws
Were you on a blog page? There should be a button at the bottom of a blog post that says “continue discussion.” When you click on it should bring you over here to the discourse system, to the thread associated with that article. Then you should see a “reply” at the bottom with an arrow next to the heart and link and flag and if you click on that, it should open a text box for you to put your two cents in. Then hit the blue reply button at the bottom of the text box to post it.
You can respond to the article by clicking the reply button directly under it. Or you can respond to another poster by clicking reply directly under their comment. You can also direct a comment to another person by using the @ sign, and then typing their name and clicking on it when you see it come up. Then they will get a notification when they login that you said something to them.
Once you are in the discourse system (you can also get here by clicking on the “forum” button from the biologos.org main page) you can see the open discussion threads by clicking on “forum” and you can sort the threads various ways, such as what is new or unread.
Let me know if you are still having trouble.
This Discourse System is DREAMY …
I was a little intimidated at first … but now, I can’t imagine using anything else!
George Brooks
This doesn’t have to do with the discourse system, but I did notice something a bit odd about restrictions referring to private messaging people and posting new topics — I can only do one of either daily. I can’t message someone AND post a new topic in the same day. A bit strange!
Other than that I think the discourse system is really good.
-Tim
I do have a question. How is it that months old comments are brought back into the present forum – (presumably at some commentor’s choice?) when blogs a mere three days old go into lockdown? Can we dredge up anything we want from months or years ago?
The only reason I bring it up is not because I’m itching to bring back old discourses, but rather, that it is a small bit annoying to inattentively launch into a seemingly new conversation only to discover you’re reading noncurrent stuff that you probably already read months or years ago. I know – the date is right there (with the helpful little clocks as a time-span reminder as well) and I should pay attention. But it does make me wonder how/if we have the power to bring back anything that piques our interest.