Reply settings by category

What would you like done?

I would like to have differing reply settings by category. For example, we have a classified category and we want replies to be to poster only, not to the entire forum.

We have other categories e.g. asking for a recommendation when I would like the reply choice of Reply privately, or Reply to all.

The help desk suggested I post here to see if someone could write a component to do this. I am completely new to discourse, so hoping this makes sense.

When do you need it done? Ideally in the next week or so.

What is your budget, in $ USD that you can offer for this task? Don’t know how much to offer. As have no idea how long it will take.

2 Likes

Hey there Iris,

Before I follow up with a quote, I might need your help in understanding a bit more about what you want to do. This will help us understand the next best step. Sometimes it turns out that you can achieve a goal without doing any custom work.

This is what I’ve understood from your post. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

You want a category where:

  • Anyone can post
  • Only certain group of people can reply
  • Only the person who posted, and the people in the group that can reply, can see the replies.

You want a category where:

  • Anyone can post
  • Anyone can reply
  • You can reply privately or reply publicly.

Is that right? Are there any other configurations you’re after?

2 Likes

Hi, thanks for clarifying. I want three category types actually:

  1. As today: You reply and it goes to everyone (I’m not really using user groups, not relevant to my forum)

  2. Anyone can post. Anyone can reply. But all replies are private, but it is not possible to reply publicly

  3. As you wrote: anyone can post, anyone can reply, you can reply privately or reply publicly

tx a million.

Bronwyn

1 Like

Great, thanks for clarifying.

A standard category (like the one we’re talking in right now) should work for this one. Do you think there’ll be an issue with a standard category here?

For these two, when you say you want to allow people to “reply privately”, could you flesh out how you see that working a bit? (e.g. “I want two buttons to appear here…I want the reply to appear here…”).

To give you an example of a version of this, in normal discourse you can click on a persons avatar in a topic, and then click the “Message” button, you’ll be prompted to write them a private message with the “topic” field filled as “Re: <topic-title” and the topic link at the top of the post body.

Or when you say “Reply privately” do you mean the post will appear within the topic itself, but only the original poster and the replier can see it? Or perhaps you want a more streamlined version of the normal “Reply by PM” functionality I mentioned above.

The reason I’m grilling you on this is that one of the key things to establish early on in any custom work is whether or not it will involve changes to the server, or whether it can be done entirely in the client. This affects the cost, and whether or not it’s possible (depending on your hosting provider).

Essentially, the “I want to tweak the existing ‘Reply by PM’ UX” version is doable in a theme component and relatively straightforward, whereas the “I want private posts to appear next to public posts in the same topic” version is harder, and may not be possible depending on your hosting provider.

If you’re not sure about how to answer that question, or you want more guidance, PM me and we can continue the convo in more depth privately or on a call.

3 Likes

absolutely makes total sense.

As I understand it there is an arrow at the top of a post - when you open that it has a number of reply options, one of which is a private reply, one is a whisper and other things. I think this arrow is very confusing as below the posting box there is another arrow for reply.

Ideally I’d like there to be one of two reply buttons at the bottom depending on the setting:

  • one with Reply Privately on it and one with Reply to All on it.

I’d love to have the upper arrow mirror this or be gone. I think it’s very confusing.

I can screenshot what I mean, but is v late here (3:47) and I need to sleep. Thanks for engaging. I’ll get back to you tomorrow.

1 Like

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