Comment Confusion (UPDATED)

Ever since I switched to the WordPress template I am currently using, I have had occasional issues with the order comments appear in. I thought I had solved the problem by allowing “nested” comments. This seemed to make the comments appear in the proper order and allowed for the possibility of keeping responses to this or that particular comment grouped together.  I thought this might make it easier to track the flow of conversations—especially on some of the longer comment threads.

I fear, however, that nested comments have simply led to more confusion and frustration.  I’ve heard from several people that it’s hard to figure out where this or that comment fits, who’s responding to whom, why there’s a date right in the middle of the thread that’s totally out of chronological order, etc.  My sense is that nested comments make things more, not less confusing—would that be a fair assessment?

For the time being, I’ve changed the settings back to not allowing nested comments.  I hope that from now on comments will simply appear in chronological order again, although the odd glitch may still appear.  I am trying to figure out how to correct these problems, but I have a strained relationship with technology at the best of times, so I’m not terribly optimistic.  At any rate, I have appreciated the recent discussions very much, despite the template frustrations.  Thanks for throwing your two (or ten or twenty) cents in now and then.

UPDATE: Ignore the above (except the part about me appreciating the discussions).  The comment-setting switch did not have the desired effect.  I repent in sackcloth and ashes and will henceforth resist the temptation to monkey around with blog settings about which I know next to nothing.