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 is a setting to toggle the Topic reply label in mobile (default is off).
Also included are common locale files for multi-language forums for those that aren’t using AI translation.
To only use the Topic reply button string in desktop view, simply delete any entry in the post_reply_append string component translation setting and save it.
There is no mobile option for the Post reply button because the space in the post footer is very limited and injecting text onto the button breaks the post footer.
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.)
My users (and that is the situation generally in the northern europe) are 85+ % mobile users. They need desperate more clearer reply. Icons aren’t that informative to ordinary people.
But that is more deeper issue than this component is doing.
i tried adding to the post reply button but it pretty much borks the entire topic footer layout completely because of all the other stuff there already. it’s also a pain to inject into the DOM with the initializer because of how Discourse handles that section in mobile. Sorry folks, you’ll have to settle with just the topic footer button label in mobile.
If I recall right I has asked similar thing at some point: reply to post is hard to understand for ordinary user with FB background and they don’t react to reply icon. And back then the answer was that is basically an impossible task. I was wondering to use nested style with diary type topics, but that is really confusing system even if there would be more informative reply button.
The issue — and the reason why I’m heavily off topic now — is topics longer than about four posts and earlier post or original one, weaks up some thoughts to comment. Specially newer users don’t comment because they don’t see a reply they recognise. But that is a question of the very base of Discourse and I hoped your TC would be an answer.
If I’ve had skills, and that would be possible, I would like to see a reply right below a toolbar (or what ever its name is).
this has been a thorn for quite some time and Discourse founders seem adamant there is no issue. i disagree, but expect it isn’t an easy change in core.
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