We have got rid of the "Reply" and "Quote" buttons

Brendan Burgess

Founder
Messages
54,186
People did not understand how to use them properly. The names were not intuitive.

To reply to a post now, just start typing in the box below it and press Post Reply

If you want to quote a selection of a post, highlight it, and hit the "Reply" button.
 
1 This should make life easier for everyone

2. Selectively quoting is better than quoting the entire post in the reply, especially if you only want to say "Thanks"

3. Any other business?
 
Any complaints? Talk to @mathepac

People should not quote the entire post when replying.

The practice of quoting preceding posts in full when replying is still commonplace, and, from my observations, it doesn’t seem to get corrected or even commented on. It can render threads unnavigable in my experience, and long-term posters are as guilty here as newcomers. I have no idea what...
www.askaboutmoney.com
 
While we are the topic of referring to earlier posts, it is possible to provide a link to a specific post.

1) Each post has a number e.g.


2) Right click on this number



3) Click on Copy link address - this copies the link into your clipboard
4) Paste it wherever you want. This could be a reply on askaboutmoney. Or you might want to send the link to a specific post to a friend - you can save them from reading through the entire thread of finding "post number 4"

We have got rid of the "Reply" and "Quote" buttons

People did not understand how to use them properly. The names were not intuitive. To reply to a post now, just start typing in the box below it and press Post Reply If you want to quote a selection of a post, highlight it, and hit the "Reply" button.
www.askaboutmoney.com

5) Post numbers can change if we edit the thread.

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
3. Any other business?
Click to expand...
My tuppence worth; this might be fine if everyone used the site on a desktop/laptop, but it's much less convenient on a phone, having to fiddle with what you're highlighting, in the absence of a mouse. Especially if you've got fat fingers.

I'd suggest that this is precisely the reason that people routinely reply to entire posts, rather than parsing the bit they're replying to - because they're using the site on their phone... I know that on the increasingly rare occasions that I use the site on a computer, I do parse, but it's a PITA to do so on a phone.

I'm not convinced that the pros of this outweigh the cons - where are all these unnavigable threads? I'd posit that threads will quickly become incoherent unless most people engage fully with the "highlighting the bit you want to reply to" approach, and just say what they want to say, without an obvious reference who / what they're replying to.

If I find it unduly cumbersome to post coherently on my phone, or to read threads, my participation (and all the incisive contributions I make!) will fall off, quickly.
 

We have got rid of the "Reply" and "Quote" buttons

People did not understand how to use them properly. The names were not intuitive. To reply to a post now, just start typing in the box below it and press Post Reply If you want to quote a selection of a post, highlight it, and hit the "Reply" button.
www.askaboutmoney.com

Just testing to see how this works on a phone - I've copied your post #10, and indeed that's where you'll be brought if you hit the link, but the text that shows quoted in the pane above is just the opening post from the beginning of the thread. So it looks as though I'm replying to the OP, when in fact I'm replying to Post #10, and any other user would have to click on the link to glean that.

That's surely less coherent than the old way, where at least it's obvious what post I'm replying to...

I'm really struggling to see where the net improvement in clarity is going to arise here, but hopefully I'll be proven wrong!
 
Last edited:
This is a copy of the link on post no 6

We have got rid of the "Reply" and "Quote" buttons

People did not understand how to use them properly. The names were not intuitive. To reply to a post now, just start typing in the box below it and press Post Reply If you want to quote a selection of a post, highlight it, and hit the "Reply" button.
www.askaboutmoney.com

So this is the way it has always been. You get the thread title and not the actual content of post no. 6 but the link does bring you to post no 6.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
So this is the way it has always been. You get the thread title and not the actual content of post no. 6 but the link does bring you to post no 6.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's always been the way when you link to a specific post in a thread and there's no change in behaviour on foot of the quote/reply button removal.
 
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