Is there a "Reply to View" plugin for Discourse?

Hi everyone,I’m relatively new to Discourse and I’m wondering if there’s a plugin or feature that allows for “reply to view” functionality. Specifically, I’m looking for something that would allow me to hide part of a post’s content until someone replies to the thread.

I’ve looked around but haven’t found anything that does exactly this. Does anyone know if such a plugin exists? Or perhaps if there’s a workaround or alternative method to achieve something similar?

I understand this might not be a common request, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts and experiences. Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance for your time and help. I’m really enjoying being part of this community and learning more about Discourse.

P.S. If this isn’t possible or goes against Discourse’s philosophy, I’d be interested in understanding why as well. Thanks again!

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I’ve never heard or thought of that as a possibility. Usually a reply is only helpful when in response to something.

Mind if I ask what your use case is?

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Could you create an automation that will only trigger when they send/post something or if they join a group?

This sort-of does a version of that (it hides replies completely)

It might be possible to change it to show replies for those who have replied.

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Not sure if these might help with your idea or use-case (or as an alternative), but there are also a gated topics in categories component, and a guest gate component:

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This private reply plugin isn’t exactly a “reply to view” plugin, but it has been very useful to me as well. Thank you so much for recommending it! However, I’ve noticed a few drawbacks. While I do need the private reply feature, I’m not a fan of the option that allows private replies to be made public through a second setting. This might make some responders feel betrayed.

I understand your point. The reason I need this feature is that our creators thrive on feedback and encouragement. By making replies visible only after responding, we can boost their motivation and engagement. Thank you for considering this!

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Thank you so much for your recommendation. This plugin is indeed one of the ones I need as well. I really appreciate it!

just note that those are theme components not plugins.

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A theme component could do it with the caveat they it wouldn’t be hard to bypass if someone really wanted to.

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Then don’t use those options?

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What is the difference between a plugin and a theme component? Someone mentioned that a theme component wouldn’t be hard to bypass—could you please explain what that means? Thank you!

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@copymonopoly were you able to solve your issue? The Discourse Private Replies plugin appears to offer exactly what you ask for in the first post:

I’m going to set a timer to close this topic. If you decide to use that plugin and need help or have suggestions you can reply in that topic, as it is community contributed.

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Thank you for the suggestion! This plugin is very useful, but I’ve already developed my own plugin that controls reply visibility, so the issue has been resolved. I really appreciate your help!

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Did you open source it?

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Yeah, I thought about asking that. And if not, then @copymonopoly you may be better off after all using @rgj’s plugin because it is open source and supported by him here (amirite, Richard?), and therefore likely to keep working with a minimum of fuss with future updates.

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:white_check_mark: correct :slight_smile:

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Thanks for asking! Just to clarify,my plugin isn’t the same as @rgj’s. It makes it so that users need to reply to a topic before they can see its content. In contrast, @rgj’s plugin is for private replies, which are only visible to the post author.

As for open sourcing, my plugin is still quite rough — more like a “patchwork” that barely works on my own site. It’s not really ready for general use yet, and my code isn’t really a complete plugin.

As @tobiaseigen explained, it can do exactly that

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