Somehow, I just don't think this is really necessary. At first glance, I think it would be more appealing to see who it was that replied to you but, should it really matter? Are you going to handle the reply differently depending on who it was that replied to you? Frankly, I would assume that I would see that I have a reply and simply go to it, regardless of who replied. I really doubt that this is what you intended, but it would seem that the only real use for this would be to be able to ignore posts from users you didn't care about and check posts from users that you did care about.

I don't mean to be condemning/condescending or whatever other adjective you might put toward this post. Frankly, I think it would be more attractive to post replies the way you had stated and I doubt it would be very difficult to implement. All I wonder is if it's really necessary. I have a feeling that the other monks here (myself incldued) would handle those messages exactly the same way we handle them now: Check the box and click on the reply.

Once case where it might be useful, though, would be to check against if you had replied to your own post. I have, once or twice in the past, posted a follow-up question to my own node and I get the message that I got a reply to my node...from myself. Perhaps those messages could be eliminated.

- Sherlock

Update: In reply to your reply of this reply *grin*, tadman, you could, of course, click on the first link in your message from root, which identifies the node that you had originally posted. This would allow you to see all of those replies on a single page. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that this change is bad - I just wonder if it's necessary.

Skepticism is the source of knowledge as much as knowledge is the source of skepticism.