Correct, the placeholder for both new topics and replies share the same translation key as you mentioned js.composer.reply_placeholder
As far as I know, there haven’t been any requests for separate keys so far.
Still, you can customize this on your site for now.
If you add the following to your theme in the common > header
tab, it should give you the desired result.
<script type="text/discourse-plugin" version="0.8">
// options you can change
const placeHolderForReplies = "CHANGE_THIS_TEXT_BUT_KEEP_THE_QUOTES";
// no need to change anything below this line.
const discourseComputed = require("discourse-common/utils/decorators").default;
const currentLocale = I18n.currentLocale();
I18n.translations[currentLocale].js.composer.custom_reply_placeholder =
placeHolderForReplies;
api.modifyClass("component:composer-editor", {
@discourseComputed
replyPlaceholder() {
return this.topic ? "composer.custom_reply_placeholder" : this._super(...arguments);
}
});
</script>
You can change the text for the reply placeholder in the second line. If it’s a reply, your site will show that text… otherwise, Discourse will fall back to the default you set for the js.composer.reply_placeholder
translation key.