https://www.elkarte.net/community/index.php?topic=4773.msg34716#msg34716
:D
Interesting ... So it would only show direct reply's to a specific message in that topic?
Yes, something like that.
Just for reference, this is the help page for slack threads:
https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/115000769927-Message-threads
or (language apart... except for Germans :P) this, that shows a little better how threads appear there:
https://www.turn-on.de/tech/ratgeber/so-funktionieren-die-neuen-threads-in-slack-208309
then, of course, in the forum, threads would just be a set of messages more directly related to a certain particular post, not an entirely separated discussion.
As usual, I'm not sure if that would help or not, but it may be worth giving a try (not disrupting anything and just meaning some more code to write lol).