Sounds like an OP wind-up to me.  This is the third eBay forum format I have seen and, apart from a few minor irritations (like the "in reply to" headings) I think it's pretty good, and anybody with basic computer skills should find it easy to enough to operate.

>> The forums I really don't like is where there are wads of indented responses to someone's post...

I agree with that. On the initial comment threads  when this format was first introduced there was some talk from management about that wretched threaded system being adopted on here at a later date.  It wasn't popular then, and I trust it has died the death:

www.community.ebay.com/New-Community-Experience/16422335#M635