Hi Mary,

At the bottom of each post there is a string of options from "Reply" through "E-mail to friend," all of which apply to that specific post. In Threaded (default) and Flat views multiple posts can be displayed at once, so be careful to find the Reply link just below the person's message, in the same color (white or green) box as the post, you wish to reply to. There also used to be a button to start a new thread/topic while viewing an existing thread, but that was removed to avoid confusion; Now you must go to the forum page (using the "Back to _______ forum" link) to start a new thread. Now and then there is a glitch, such as with a message not being submitted, but you should find them to be few and far between.

Hope this helps,
John