The Nesting Limit
In its current configuration, the nesting limit is a major impediment to extended conversation. My understanding is that making it infinite at the blockchain protocol level would be a performance hit for recursive rewards calculation, but couldn't the Steemit website still properly sequence an infinite reply chain if the permlink rather than the parent_permlink indicated the post to which it was a reply?
I agree completely with this. @troglodactyl and I were engaged in some conversations that were going quite well and we had to jump through hoops to try to carry on the conversation once we reached the nesting limits. That has happened to me three or four times so far and I haven't been using steemit for quite a week yet. I believe if this is to replace reddit and facebook that this is something important that must be addressed. I do believe steemit has the obvious potential to replace those sites.
@troglodactyl and I had to resort to posting an additional reply to the second to the last post within the nested topic and wait to see if that post was upvoted. If it was upvoted then we would know to go and look for an additional response.
This is cumbersome and awkward. This should be addressed. I would be fine if the reward mechanism only went so deep in terms of calculations but allowed further depth for communication. This is not ideal. The solution @troglodactyl is suggesting would be better if it can be pulled off.
EDIT: IF you want to see examples of the extent we went to carry on the conversation have a look at this post: https://steemit.com/anarchism/@lunamoonuh/to-be-or-not-to-be-controlled#@dwinblood/re-troglodactyl-re-dwinblood-re-troglodactyl-re-dwinblood-re-lunamoonuh-to-be-or-not-to-be-controlled-20160717t204452420z
I also made some attempt to selectively upvote to keep the messages properly sequenced, but that doesn't work well at all.
That is a good point. Until this is fixed there is a distinct possibility you and I may have long conversations again. I propose that if we reach the nesting limit we start numbering our posts so that if they are out of order it is possible to identify the sequence.
Good call.
There's also an option to sort by new or updated at the very top of the comment section, I must admit I missed that before. I still think it would be an improvement to use a naming convention in the permlink to reference what it's replying to. Then the vote based sorting could use that post as a ceiling for upsorting it.
And a time stamp if it is in the same day and the comments are not too close together.