# Question/suggestion about arrow/icon referencing replied to post

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-suggestion-about-arrow-icon-referencing-replied-to-post/117516>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Created:** [May 12, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-suggestion-about-arrow-icon-referencing-replied-to-post/117516 "2019-05-12T17:45:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![seanblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@seanblue](https://meta.discourse.org/u/seanblue)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-suggestion-about-arrow-icon-referencing-replied-to-post/117516/1 "2019-05-12T17:45:05Z")

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Sorry about the topic name. I wasn’t sure how to describe what I wanted to ask about. I’m referring to this:

![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/b/d/bd8ed7a0dc567d4bf34611591327d4328eff74ca.png)

* * *

In a previous topic some months ago (I can’t find it) I had expressed a desire to have an indicator to differentiate between when a reply is to the previous post versus the first post in the topic. With the default Discourse settings, the reply icon shown above does not appear in either of those cases, making it impossible to know whether the reply was to the post immediately above or to the topic itself.

In that original topic, I was told about a site-wide setting where those reply icons are displayed even when the reply is to the post immediately above. We enabled that on our install and personally I’ve had a mixed experience with it. While it did “fix” my original problem, I now find myself clicking the reply icon to see the previous post, just to see that it was actually the post right above. In short, I understand why the Discourse defaults are the defaults, as they do seem better than the current alternative.

* * *

Now that I’ve used both versions for several months each, I wanted to bring up the discussion again.

Is there still no interest in finding some visual way to differentiate between replies to the post right above and replies to the topic itself? UX isn’t my strong suit, so I don’t have any great suggestions for how to visualize it. Here is the best idea I have:

1. Pick either the the replies to topic _or_ the replies to the previous post to **not** display the arrow and user icon.
2. Display the arrow and user icon in the other case, but change the visuals slightly so it’s clear that it’s special. Perhaps it would be enough to put the glowing ring around the user icon similar to the topic list when a user is both the topic creator and last reply.  
 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/9/4/940ba27141350c4c4717752d0ef13d738194c1de.png)

So basically something like this:  
 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/e/6/e6cefd9afebe9c8358a2a0d5afb236fe3a92b7ea.png)

I’d really be happy with _any_ visual indication of the different types of replies, but I didn’t want to create this topic (again) without some concrete suggestion.

* * *

Finally, if there is still no desire to change the visuals around this in default Discourse, is there any way a theme or other site configuration could allow this? I have no idea what is and isn’t possible with Discourse themes, so I wanted to find out the feasibility of that approach.

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing everyone’s thoughts on this.

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/question-suggestion-about-arrow-icon-referencing-replied-to-post/117516)._