You may want to change your display mode in your user options (UserCP at the top left | Edit Options | Thread Display Options | Thread Display Mode) to the hybrid mode and then (a) you'll see a thread tree at the top and messages below and (b) you can click on the quick reply button of any message (to the right of Edit and Quote there's an icon that looks like a quill pen on a sheet of paper) and it will reply to that message. If you choose the threaded mode, you'll see the thread tree and ONE message below. Same thing works for the quick reply.
The subject isn't filled in but instead is the first few words of the message you write, so it's easy for people to glance and see if they want to read more.
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-- jgr
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