# Include reply notation in raw text

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/include-reply-notation-in-raw-text/404722
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [June 8, 2026, 3:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/include-reply-notation-in-raw-text/404722 "2026-06-08T03:31:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Tyson\_Jacobs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tyson_jacobs/32/499043_2.png) [@Tyson\_Jacobs](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tyson_Jacobs)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2026, 3:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/include-reply-notation-in-raw-text/404722/1 "2026-06-08T03:31:05Z")

</div>

It would be very helpful if some kind of notation were included in the raw text version of a topic indicating which message, if any, a particular message is replying to.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![NateDhaliwal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/natedhaliwal/32/313494_2.png) [@NateDhaliwal](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NateDhaliwal)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2026, 3:59am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/include-reply-notation-in-raw-text/404722/2 "2026-06-08T03:59:14Z")

</div>

I presume you mean `/raw/<topic_id>/<post_id>`? Perhaps you could use the JSON version, as it has the key `reply_to_post_number` in it to link to the post it’s replying to.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![chapoi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/chapoi/32/537252_2.png) [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2026, 7:02am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/include-reply-notation-in-raw-text/404722/3 "2026-06-08T07:02:37Z")

</div>

Hello and welcome to Meta.

When making feature requests it’s helpful and good practice to sketch out what the context of the feature request is. It could be it’s already possible to do what you want, but we won’t know without more information.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Tyson\_Jacobs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tyson_jacobs/32/499043_2.png) [@Tyson\_Jacobs](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Tyson_Jacobs)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2026, 11:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/include-reply-notation-in-raw-text/404722/4 "2026-06-08T23:07:42Z")

</div>

> [@NateDhaliwal](#):
>
> presume you mean `/raw/<topic_id>/<post_id>`? Perhaps you could use the JSON version, as it has the key `reply_to_post_number` in it to link to the post it’s replying to.

Nice. That looks like a way forward, thanks!

> [@chapoi](#):
>
> When making feature requests it’s helpful and good practice to sketch out what the context of the feature request is. It could be it’s already possible to do what you want, but we won’t know without more information.

Sure. What I had in mind was a way to create a transcript of an individual “discussion”. I’m a user of a philosophy forum ([https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/](https://www.thephilosophyforum.com/)), and often individual back and forth discussions get lost in a flurry of cross talk. It would be very helpful to be able to filter a topic so that only messages where one of the two users replied to, or quoted, the other are shown

Does this make sense? It probably deserves its own feature request, but I felt it would be a hefty ask for a proper implementation.