# Introducing nested replies

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-nested-replies/402812
**Category:** Announcements
**Tags:** nested-replies
**Created:** [May 12, 2026, 11:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-nested-replies/402812 "2026-05-12T23:21:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 64

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### Author: ![NiceOldGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/niceoldguy/32/326207_2.png) [@NiceOldGuy](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NiceOldGuy)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2026, 9:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-nested-replies/402812/64 "2026-06-28T21:20:52Z")

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At first I thought it was amusing that this announcement wasn’t in nested-reply format; then realized you weren’t ready to reformat the whole #News and Events > Announcements category. 🙂

Here’s some resources I collected when new to Discourse and understanding the flat model:  
**Jeff’s canonical take:**

> **[Discussions: Flat or Threaded?](https://blog.codinghorror.com/discussions-flat-or-threaded/)**
>
> Clay Shirky’s classic articles on social software should be required reading for all software developers working on web applications. As near as I can tell, that’s pretty much every developer these days.
> 
> But I somehow missed Joel Spolsky’s related...

**A nicely-done outside note:**

> **[Understanding and Using Discourse's Flat Threading](https://community.lsst.org/t/understanding-and-using-discourses-flat-threading/150)**
>
> There has been some consternation about the threading model used by Discourse, community.lsst.org’s platform, from those expecting the types of hierarchically nested reply chains that are standard on many forums. This post explains Discourse’s...

Why Discourse uses **“Topics” rather than “Threads”** (from 2017, before `nested-replies’ was invented.

> [@Terminology: topics vs threads](https://meta.discourse.org/t/terminology-topics-vs-threads/63390):
>
> I was curious to see a discussion about why topics are called topics and not threads (the more common term in online forums, according to my experience) but so far I have not been able to find any. Has this really not been discussed previously? Personally, I have gotten used to the discourse terminology but I find it somewhat of a pain when trying to explain things to new users, as “topic” is not intuitively understood while thread is well known from email and other online forums. Yet, I am rel…

and for a deeper dive into **threads** :

> [@Why is the word "thread" not allowed on Meta?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-the-word-thread-not-allowed-on-meta/82156):
>
> Why is the word, “threa.d” not allowed? I’m curious. Just tried to use it in a private message. And, lol the F bomb just auto corrected into a PM I was writing. Oops.

I really agreed with Kris’ @awesomerobot [defense of the flat model as fitting CDCK’s community building and engagement model.](https://meta.discourse.org/t/threaded-discussion-is-ultimately-too-complex-to-survive-on-the-public-internet/63172/75) While we may adopt nested-replies for some admin categories–useful for issue tracking–I’ll be slow to implement it for general discussion categories.

Lastly, while I may implement nested-replies, I will sorely miss infinite scrolling. I have a nice mouse with a handy free-spinning scroll wheel, but nothing beats grabbing the infinite scroll bar slider and quickly moving through a topic.

> [@Understanding infinite scrolling](https://meta.discourse.org/t/understanding-infinite-scrolling/30804):
>
> bookmark This is an explanation of what “infinite scrolling” is and how it is implemented in Discourse. person_raising_hand Required user level: All users Infinite scrolling is a feature designed to improve the user experience by automatically loading more content as you scroll down a page, instead of requiring manual page navigation. Summary In this documentation, we’ll cover: The concept of infinite scrolling. How Discourse implements infinite scrolling. Key advantages of infinite …

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/introducing-nested-replies/402812)._