One of my favorite forums I used to visit had this 'ping' option to where, if you wanted to, you could ping the user of the post you're replying to.
It helped a lot on the debate forums so you could reply quickly. (:
I've seen it in different sites as either @username or something along those lines.
It seemed helpful to me instead of watching a whole forum or particular topic, you could just click right to the reply.
Anywayyyy just a suggestion. If something like this is already in place then please excuse my ignorance.
