# New Topic + Reply: Distinquish Ephemeral Text

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-topic-reply-distinquish-ephemeral-text/205575
**Category:** UX
**Created:** [October 8, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-topic-reply-distinquish-ephemeral-text/205575 "2021-10-08T19:46:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Johani](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/johani/32/176920_2.png) [@Johani](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Johani)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2021, 9:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-topic-reply-distinquish-ephemeral-text/205575/2 "2021-10-08T21:17:02Z")

</div>

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.

```xml
<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.

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