I would like a reply to the "Reply" issue

I do wonder why OPs in particular bother to start threads when they clearly don't read them.

You only have to look at some of the incomprehensible threads on here at the moment, to see that the OP isn't reading what's going on.

Although, to be fair, when I've mentioned this to some people, and pointed out that the Reply button doesn't work, a lot of them do say "thanks - I was wondering why I thought I was quoting PP and nothing happened" so I suppose some people do read.................................

Does anyone know when Reply came into being?

I mean, bearing in mind it does nothing at all, surely MNHQ didn't announce its introduction with a fanfare of any kind.

That’s why you need old screenshots@TheShellBeach .

I found this, which is very interesting: look at the post visible in the background. It shows a “Post Toolbar” with a button called “add message”. It’s on an OP though, and you can’t see the same button in the post below.

Yes, you’re right @Papillon23 . Well done for finding that thread @whinge but the screenshot on the MNHQ OP of where to find Quote on the mobile site has been taken after the ellipsis has been clicked- what you are seeing is a drop down menu but it looks like a sort of post-specific toolbar.

The reason that we have false-remembered Quote being a one-click option at the bottom of every post is that there were no other “interact” type buttons there, just the bookmark and the ellipsis to open up the menu of possible interactions. It also appeared with much bigger type than the current drop down accessed from top right so it felt more like a toolbar than a drop down.

It doesn't matter how far back you look - threads from many years ago now show the Reply button, even though it wasn't there when the threads were created.

I've been checking a friend's threads from 2016 and I can see Thanks and Reply on offer.

I remember when the Quote button was on the toolbar at the bottom. I didn't have a smartphone then, so I never used any other device, other than my laptop.

Now I use the desktop app on my phone as well as the laptop.

Anyway - MNHQ are not telling the truth about the previous location of the Quote button. It wasn't always under the ellipsis. I may be getting old but I can remember where it used to be, and I can also remember when the Thanks button appeared, and I wondered where the Quote button had gone to.

Some users from a long time ago still haven't managed to work out where the Quote button has disappeared to. Those users are as guilty as the newer ones in imagining that the Reply button actually quotes anything.

I recall when the Quote button was introduced. It was a game-changer. Such an improvement to the site.

Now it's hidden, and many threads are an incomprehensible series of disjointed posts which make no sense whatsoever.

I am not sure why MNHQ is so opposed to putting things back the way they were.

I quite like the Thanks button but I'll gladly sacrifice it to have some clarity back on this website.

Not any more - sadly we can all see it now - but I think it used to be.

See screenshot from linked thread here.

When the change happened is a bit of a mystery to me though!

But everything on the mobile site was under the 3 dots except bookmark.

Oww does that mean the useless reply button is hidden on the mobile site?

And then at some point before Jan 2023 they added the bottom bar but seemingly still no reply button - see screenshot below? So if you wanted to quote it was still under the 3 dots but there wasn't a misleading button as far as I can see?

From this thread: www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/4712323-unable-to-quote

I think that shows it wasn't on the desktop site but was on the mobile site?

But everything on the mobile site was under the 3 dots except bookmark.

Quote definitely moved. It never used to be hidden behind the dots.

Here's a thread to prove it.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/3920629-First-crack-at-a-new-quote-feature-please-check-it-out

I can’t believe this thread was started in early November, and it’s now mid-January, and no resolution.

MN really don’t give a shit, do they?

I have long been of the opinion that the tech department of MN is powered off two old, asthmatic hamsters half-heartedly wheezing around an ancient, rusty wheel, and this just confirms it.

I mean, MNHQ - you have one job: to run a website….?

Just copy and paste the code for ‘Quote’ into ‘reply’. It’s the work of seconds.

I'm sure that Quote was where Thanks is now.

I can't recall seeing Reply until quite recently.
I'm going to do some digging.

I’ve just found this from when “Thanks” was introduced in September last year.

MnHQ said that “Quote” was always behind the ellipsis! Are we being gaslighted @betterangels or is it all false memory ? It’s funny that someone else on that thread thought it had been moved…

So the mainly green one shows that quoting existed by then (but was in its early days as you couldn't quote anything with a quote then, and the one that's not mainly green is from around the same time (slightly later) and shows that the "post toolbar" didn't yet exist in the same way it does now at that point, so this madness has been introduced within the last 2 years.

I had assumed it was a relic of bygone days but feel like the absurdity is amplified given this was presumably designed at the point of the site redesign? Not sure when that was, but fairly recently I think.

I've just found a screenshot from 2022 which has quote in 2022 within the 3 dots but no more "post toolbar" than in 2020.

Will go back and locate screenshots shortly.

Certainly since Feb 2020 @Papillon23 .

According to someone upthread, Quote began life on what I’m now calling “The Post Toolbar” but was shunted off to make way for “Thanks”. I have no screenshot evidence of that, but that was my gut feel too.

That screenshot I just posted does confirm that the three dots (aka ellipsis) were at the bottom though.

Hang on so this was added in the last couple of years?! Wowsers

I vaguely think quote has always been under the 3 dots but that the dots used to be at the bottom but not sure...

OK, so I had a bit of a dig in old site stuff threads to see if any screenshots posted there have a snapshot of how things used to be (mobile site).

This from 2020 shows that individual posts only had bookmark or ellipsis on them. (Open image and you’ll see the full blue toolbar).

Therefore, anyone who wanted to add a post to the thread would go to the blue “add post” at the bottom of the thread.

What has obviously happened is that somewhere along the line the new “toolbar for individual posts” has come in. Someone has decided at this point that it needs a “Reply” button on it, without thinking through the fact that this function was already served by “add post”, which was not being got rid of.

It makes much more sense to have “add post” as an option on the THREAD toolbar as you are adding your post (aka reply) to the whole thread.

The buttons on the individual post toolbars are actions you do to that post . Therefore the logical conclusion is that “Reply” is a reply to that post not a reply to the thread generally, especially if the post you have clicked “Reply” on is not the most recent post on the thread. And, indeed, if it’s not the most recent post on the thread then its text HAS to be quoted for the reply to make any sense.

I'm old enough to remember when we bolded something we wanted to quote

I still do this. As it annoys me that you can't quote part of of a post and I hate quoting a long post and cluttering the thread.

I'm old enough to remember when we bolded something we wanted to quote, but I can't recall when the Reply button first appeared.

Was it always there?

I’m not sure how long Quote’s existed, but before that people just copied & pasted whatever they wanted to quote, then bolded it.

Does anyone know when it was brought in?

I honestly can’t remember what I was using to reply without quoting (say) 5 years ago.

What baffles me is why MNHQ created the button in the first place. It's absolutely pointless and I can't imagine how it ever made it onto the site.

Totally agree with this. It makes threads very hard to follow. And anyone wanting a response to the poster they 'replied' to wil be waiting a long time. It's a completely pointless button!