Show replies as quotes

projectmoon

@[email protected] I think it would be a good idea to show posts that are in-reply-to as quotes in the reply. Right now, all you see is a tiny "replied to..." on the top. Since NodeBB can interoperate with Lemmy, it can get kind of confusing to follow some threads, as the forum UX presents the discussion as linear, while Lemmy is multi-threaded. Showing the original post as a quote would help with following the discussion.

Kichae

@[email protected] said in Show replies as quotes:

I think it would be a good idea to show posts that are in-reply-to as quotes in the reply. Right now, all you see is a tiny "replied to..." on the top. Since NodeBB can interoperate with Lemmy, it can get kind of confusing to follow some threads, as the forum UX presents the discussion as linear, while Lemmy is multi-threaded. Showing the original post as a quote would help with following the discussion.

This gets pretty messy if it's the default behaviour. It's also not in line with standard forum etiquette. I don't think the goal here is to turn nodeBB into "Lemmy, but with a different layout". It's a forum first, with Fediverse interoperability baked in. That means it's carrying 30+ years of forum norms on its shoulders, and those norms are going to find themselves in conflict with Lemmy and Mastodon norms from time to time.

I don't think it shouldn't give way to them.

Besides, there is already a feature for spotlighting replies:

projectmoon

@[email protected] yes, that function is there. Then maybe the best compromise would be to essentially add a reverse of that reply spotlight feature, so you can read the original post without the page jumping.

<baris>

Maybe we can use the same system we use in chats, instead of the replied to <username> link.

Kichae

Well, that seem to address both sides of the issue quite nicely!

Is that something that would be embedded in the post body? Or a UI feature triggered by the post meta data? I wonder what it would look like from Lemmy or Mastodon.

<baris>

It is a separate UI element so the content of the parent post isn't in the post body.

panos

@baris yep, something like that is what I would suggest as well! Unobtrusive and lets you see the parent post without jumping up in the discussion

panos

However I think it would also be a good idea to offer a way to jump to the actual post as well. Perhaps the timestamp should be a link for that? Idk if that would be useful in chats as well. But in topics for sure, as you may want to jump up to that post a) to see other replies and b) to reply directly to it. So only viewing a copy of it above the reply will not always be enough.
-ugh someone give me some reputation, wdym i have to wait 300 seconds between replies-

<baris>

OK I am testing this on this forum now.

<baris>

Might need to hide the parent UI element if it directly follows the post so there is less noise, for example in this topic all posts are replies to each other.

projectmoon

@[email protected] it looks pretty nice! Suggestions would be to have the ability to jump to the post via a button (if not already present). And maybe a user setting to expand or collapse these by default.

<baris>

Clicking on the timestamp sends you to the parent post right now.