My Background & Issue:
As a community manager, one issue I frequently encounter, especially with announcement posts or megathread-style collection topics, is the inability to keep important staff comments visible within large threads/topics.
For example, if I make a clarification or announcement as a reply somewhere around the 30th post in a topic that eventually receives over 90 replies, that comment quickly gets buried. While it’s possible to highlight a comment using the staff color or add a staff notice, these don’t help when users skip the original post and/or comments to head straight to the latest replies to comment.
I’m aware of the “Solved” plugin (but only available on Pro, Business, and Enterprise hosting plans), which marks a post as the solution and creates a quote of it at the bottom of the original post. However, that still requires users to go back to the first post and doesn’t address visibility in the reply flow.
Yes, I could edit the original post to include my comment (either at the top or bottom), but this either clutters the intro or buries it further, and doesn’t appear in the natural comment flow where users are actively engaging with each other.
Proposed Solution/Feature:
Allow staff to pin a specific reply/comment directly below the topic’s reply area, so it’s immediately visible to anyone who is about to post a reply. This would help ensure that important staff clarifications or reminders are seen in full context without needing to be re-posted repeatedly or quoted in the original post in the hopes of being seen.
This would be incredibly helpful in:
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Megathreads or ongoing event threads.
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Announcement posts with frequent questions or confusion.
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Moderation/Staff notices about ongoing issues (e.g., “We’re aware of this issue!”).
Having a way to pin a comment right before someone replies, without depending on them reading 90 or more comments, would significantly improve moderation, reduce duplicate replies, and keep discussions more focused.
Visual Concept:
Here’s a very rough mockup to demonstrate the Idea:
Staff comment at position 30, highlighted with staff color and notice:
Latest comment at position 94, with the same staff comment pinned directly below the reply box:
Closing Words:
Thanks for taking the time to read and consider this feature request. If there are already other ways to better pin or highlight specific replies that I might have missed, please let me know.
I’m also open to suggestions or feedback if I misunderstood or misexplained anything.