The core Discourse topic and post reply buttons use the same string and it can be a bit unclear to inexperienced users what the different functionalities are:
Unfortunately, changing the label in Admin->Site Texts results in changing labels for both buttons.
This lightweight theme component appends a “to Topic” to the topic reply button and “to Post” to the post reply button, to make them clearer, and also allows changing and translation of the strings.
There are some included common locale files for multi-language forums for those that aren’t using AI translation.
To only use the Topic reply button string, simply delete any entry in the post_reply_append string component translation setting and save it.
This component only applies to desktop view for now; I may make a toggle to allow for the mobile topic post button text, but space is very limited in the mobile view footer UI.
Referring back to the recent posts in the nested replies topic, and your keen observation:
I share the same concern that @ToddZ noted: the button labeled simply Reply needs to be more specific.
Some users may assume that Reply to Topic is just a rephrasing of Reply, rather than understanding that the two actions are different.
As a moderator, I gave up years ago trying to fix cases where a user clicked the wrong reply button. With nested replies, I can see that same workload returning again.
One could use any text that seems more precise… I used “Reply to main Topic” in hopes of being extra clear. “Add new comment” might be another option? (Though if users just don’t understand forum vocabulary, it’s probably an uphill battle.)
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