I consider myself told off. I will try to do as you mention, although
I am new to this lark and don't know how to do it. BUT I will find out
if it is that important. I was under the impression that when you
click on a post to reply to it you are aware of what you are replying
to because you can read all previous posts. I understood that all
other readers could also read all previous posts. Is this not the
case?

I don't know how other newsreaders do it, but using Turnpike, when you
click on reply, you see on screen the whole post you are replying to,
and can add or delete bits of it as you go. I've left your first para so
people know what I'm replying to, but deleted your second.

If I don't have a post open, my screen shows a list of all the current
threads, in the order 1) threads I've contributed to or marked as
'interesting' which have new posts 2) other threads with new posts 3)
threads with no new posts. If I click on one of the threads, it will
expand it to show all the posts linked according to which posts they
were replying to - the branching can get quite complex with long
threads.

But normally I simply use the facility to move directly from one new
post to the next one, so all I see is what someone has posted - and if
they have replied without quoting anything, I can't see what they are
replying to without going to the thread display as described above - a
hassle with a group as busy as urg.

If you post from a web portal, you'll see post after post listed above
each other, and therefore in theory to see what someone is replying to
you just look at the post above theirs. But that breaks down when
threads branch, and the response may be to something that's actually
half a dozen posts above (or even on the previous page) which is why
portal software has found it necessary to provide a 'quote' facility.
--
Kay