I've done that. A thread starts with the context set by the root post, but then we branch off, and I've found myself responding to the thread overall instead of to a specific comment. I tend to assume that somebody isn't changing the subject, but is using the digression to make a point related to the main point, so returning to the thread topic can make sense. Except when it doesn't.
This format can be confusing like that sometimes. If we didn't have the thread tree, we could live in an Alzheimer's moment in which the context was no more than the last post. But the tree imposes a duality, literally seeing the forest and the trees at the same time.
It did seem a little strange that you weren't seeing the context problem. But it sounds like you were working a higher context, so to speak. I can see how that could confuse things.
Current Events » in reply to PS. It was in the context of US steel competing with Chinese labor. n/t
Nested context
The whole thread (20 posts)
- China builds special factory, has skilled workers the US can't match. For US job.
- Bethlehem Steel "13-week vacations for senior workers and United Nations Day, Oct. 24, as a paid holiday."
- "Bay Area leaders mandated the new bridge be “iconic” in its design. "