Indeed, that is was the primary technique to re-open a discussion, or take it in a different direction.
Okay, thanks! Just wasn’t sure if I was missing it somewhere.
I’ve been wondering if adding a button to the share dialog when clicking the post time would be an ideal place to put this UI element, as then you know the user is wanting to do something with that specific post.
I’ve been finding it a bit interesting that several communities are missing the UI element.
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That often happens when taking features away from a UI 
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I wasn’t thinking of when Reply As gets used to revive a Closed topic before.
Whereas the other above query helps identify “off-topics”, this finds “zombies”
WITH op_posts AS ( SELECT posts.id,
posts.created_at
FROM posts
WHERE posts.post_number = 1
),
closed_topics AS ( SELECT topics.id,
topics.last_posted_at
FROM topics
WHERE topics.archetype LIKE 'regular'
AND topics.visible
AND topics.closed
)
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT(op_posts.id)) AS zombie
FROM topic_links, op_posts, closed_topics
WHERE topic_links.internal
AND topic_links.reflection
AND topic_links.link_post_id = op_posts.id
AND topic_links.topic_id = closed_topics.id
AND closed_topics.last_posted_at < op_posts.created_at
Maybe we leave the reply button on closed topics and have it flick open reply as new topic
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I think that would be super super dangerous personally. Maybe only for tl2 users or higher.
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With the recent “final editorial decision” by @codinghorror to use the share icon for incoming posts, what if clicking the share icon below a post provided an option to “Reply as Linked Topic”? Share currently gives you the link (that you can copy and paste into a new topic to create a link), why not add a button alongside Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Email to open the New Topic composer and pre-fill the old “Continuing the Discussion from…”?
Edit: Just saw that @cpradio posted this above, sorry for the duplicate post…
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Yes this is the same suggestion as @cpradio since it is the same dialog and it is a very good idea.
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Here are some quick mockups of how “Reply as Linked Topic” might look on the link dialog:
The simple link looks best to me, and properly sets itself off from the other methods – appropriate, since it is a bit different.
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I agree, the first two options are too similar to the share buttons.
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Also adding my vote for the 3rd option.
Option 2 has no context - is it going to show more buttons, expand the window - I’m not sure.
Option 1 feels a bit too strong.
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Feels a shame to have this hidden in a menu. I predict having to explicitly educate users about it now, rather than the previous discoverable method.
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I really can’t see any other option here, one advantage of this change is that it unlocks the feature on mobile
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Of these I think option 3 makes most sense.
I agree that it’s a bit too hidden. Perhaps the + icon could be available to be added to the post menu, that works the same way? And when a topic is closed, the reply button is changed to + New Topic as I think has been proposed elsewhere.
Unfortunately I’m distracted with getting ready for a trip (meetups in Berlin, Toulouse, Dar es Salaam this summer, anyone?) so not really able to focus properly on this, and feel a bit uneasy about the big changes coming without being able to properly pay attention to them. But I’m liking the direction this is taking! 
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I too prefer the third mock-up.
I see two main uses for a Reply As
1 to branch an off-topic into its own discussion
2 to revive a closed topic
For the first I think more prominent / sooner would be better
For the second I think flagging moderators would be preferred, but I can see how some would rather not petition
My first thought of having it in the composer would work for off-topic use, but of course not for closed topics.
Overall I like having the Reply As in the share menu.
As for it being “hidden”, Discourse has quite a few features that take some time or digging to discover.
It could be argued this is poor UX, but IMHO as long as a feature can be found or learned about when the need for it arises it isn’t that much of a problem.
2 Likes
I think it’s sufficient to put it in the share screen. It seems to not be a heavily used feature, and I have never had any other reason to click the ‘link to post’ button up until now. It makes sense to put it there. Also, keyboard users will also be able to continue to have single click reply as linked topic.
And being able to have this on mobile is a huge +!
PS, voting for option #3 here, too!
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With this idea, if I want to quote reply as new, do I select some text, click the link icon, then click the + New Topic link? Then a new topic is started containing the quoted text? That seems to be a fairly circuitous route. I always liked being able to select some text and click the +Reply as new topic in the gutter.
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I was already spending lots of time educating users because the reply-as-linked-topic link was not always visible.
I don’t see the danger. Is it dangerous because you don’t want new people to re-open a closed topic by starting a new discussion because they’d do it accidentally?
But the users I care about are tl2 anyway, so that’d be fine for my edge case.
My third is that I have topics in read-only categories that function as conversation starters (my colleagues would call them “assignments”). Students start a new topic with their solution to a problem. When their topics/answers do not start with the “Continuing discussion” header, one is left to guess just what problem the person’s answer is solving. (And now, those who are unable to Reply-as are the most likely to submit answers that are nonsense.)
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That seemed to be discussed back up a bit in this thread:
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