I find I have not even once clicked on the loud blue reply button on the right, I would mute the style to a grey button, or possibly even remove it
AI-generated summary
The discussion title âShould âReplyâ appear in the right gutter?â sparked a debate about the usefulness and potential drawbacks of the reply button in the vertical timeline. sam and Mittineague argued that the button is unnecessary and might encourage bad behavior, such as replying out of context or without reading the entire topic. TechnoBear agreed, citing the issue of people not reading beyond the topic title before replying.
codinghorror countered that removing the button wouldnât solve the underlying problem and suggested alternative solutions, such as preventing users from submitting replies until they reach the end of the topic or showing read time/posts read next to the userâs name. Mittineague pointed out that the grey âreply to postâ button is different from the blue âreply to topicâ button, and that the latter might be more likely to be clicked due to its prominence.
featheredtoast defended the current implementation, arguing that it allows users to choose whether to reply to the original topic or engage with previous replies. codinghorror suggested de-emphasizing the button, and gerhard proposed removing the label to make it less prominent. iva expressed concerns about the potential confusion caused by the extra reply button.
The discussion concluded with codinghorror suggesting that suppressing the word âreplyâ might be a good compromise, and sam proposing an alternative design. Pad_Pors argued that the blue button can be inviting to users who might not otherwise participate in discussions, while TechnoBear liked the idea of replacing the button with an arrow icon.
Personally I think it is fine as it is Sam - the only reason Iâd remove it if it became apparent people were clicking on that when otherwise they would normally be clicking on the reply button of a specific post (but as of now I donât think thatâs happening).
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I like the idea of removing the reply button from the vertical timeline and letting the tracking state button be wider with a text label.
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Same with me. I either
read the topic to its end and use the topic Reply.
use the post menu Reply (most often to respond to âtangentialâ questions)
select - quote Reply as in this post.
Having a Reply to Topic in the timeline doesnât seem useful to me.
The only scenario I can think of, that I might, but have not once yet, want to use that button is if I read the topic, went back to an earlier post to check âwhat was it he said?â, and then didnât quote, reply to that post, or want to scroll back down.
One additional point about big blue button, I think it encourages bad behavior
-
if you click it you are replying out of context, replying to nothing specific (it is not in reply to any post)
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if you are replying out of context, you better have read the entire topic, otherwise likelihood of your reply being a dupe is fairly high. Which is why you would use big blue button at the bottom of topic anyway and not big blue button on the right
The button is a departure from âreading is fundamentalâ
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I agree with this wholeheartedly. One of our categories is plagued by people who donât seem to read much beyond the topic title, never mind the first post, before replying. Itâs the bane of my life, and I really dislike the new button as Iâm sure it will only encourage this behaviour.
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It isnât though, because:
- scroll down
- read until you discover someone who is Wrong On The Internetâ˘
- slam the reply button on their post as hard as you can
- profit
Thereâs 0.0% difference between that behavior â someone who stopped reading before the end of the topic and slammed a reply button â and what we currently have.
To fix that, we would need to do things like
- prevent people from submitting their reply until they physically reach the end of the topic (e.g. pop a âsorry, canât submit until you scroll all the way downâ dialog when they press the submit button)
- show actual read time / posts read in the topic next to the userâs name to shame them into reading more
- literally hide all reply buttons until you reach the bottom of the topic
Which of the above do you prefer @sam? Please reply and let me know.
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But isnât there?
The grey Reply is a âreply to postâ and the blue Reply is a âreply to topicâ.
And visually
OK, I know the difference, but for those that donât, given the prominence of the blue Iâd think the tendency for most would be to click that over the other.
True, the blue is consistent with the bottom reply to topic button. And members should know the significance of the difference. But my life experience has shown that shoulda woulda coulda oughtas are assumptions that often fail.
IMHO if the button in the timeline is to remain it would be better to have it as a reply to post, which of course would be redundant as the post reply would already be easily accessible anyway.
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Thatâs insane, since itâd be impossible to tell âwhichâ reply you are replying to on scroll position alone.
Anyway in that case, people should be quoting â which already works. Highlight text in a reply, then mash any reply button. Watch what happens.
For what itâs worth, I like it as-is.
That way no matter how far down I am in the post, I can still reply to the original topic, or engage with any of the replies previously â and itâs my choice.
From my understanding, generic replies (sans-link) are either be replying to the post immediately above, OR to the original topic. Maybe I just want to reply/respond to the main topic (even after reading only 30/100 comments), and the reply button in the gutter is a good way of doing that. I think itâs fine to reply in general even if the user hasnât read all the way to the bottom. It should perhaps be encouraged by the community, but not mandatory by the software.
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I am open to de-emphasizing the button a bit, but the claim that âif you make it so easy, teenagers will have sex!â is .. well.. 
repliers gonna reply
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Maybe by removing the label? That would also solve the problem with longer button labels nicely.
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The extra Reply button definitely adds confusion, in my opinion. Itâs clear to me when to use which button but Iâm not looking forward to explaining this to my non-technical forum users.
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At least repliers are going to reply to the correct post, and not generally to the topic 
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loud blue screams âclick meâ
Its visually much much stronger than the button that in general we want people to click. Muted grey is by @gerhard mockup is something I can live with, but still feel is incorrect anyway.
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Ah, but our editor allows people to write read while they read, and reference other peopleâs posts.. so popping the editor is actually a good thing. It signifies intent to reply, and does not block reading in any way.
I think suppressing the word reply is the best way to go here for now as we continue to evaluate. That mutes some of the loudness, while retaining the color that matches the topic reply and is correct.
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This is my pref, if we are keeping a button there I think this is better, other option is simply to hide everything there
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you are loud people by default with lots of information; by loud i donât mean to insult you, i mean you put your point of view whenever needed without any doubt. and so perhaps you donât need that much of motivation or a blue-button which is asking you to talk.
but not everyone is trained like this. some people, needed to be invited to a discussion. they may have good information or points of views, but they may not have the confidence or they may think of themselves as outsiders.
as a loud person you may not loose a thing if there exist a blue icon which invites you to the discussion, but those who feels less welcome may benefit from this blue icon.
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I like that. The arrow looks to me much more like a âBackâ button than a âReplyâ button, so hopefully it will to the majority of our ânumptieâ users, too, and stop them using it. 
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