Is it time to ditch the reply to this topic button?

[Day_]

I'm looking at the topic page and thinking what we have here is a couple of things which are no longer required. 

1) Start new topic - We have a create link at the top which gives you access to creating a topic quickly

2) Reply to this topic - Gone are the days where replying to a topic required a new page to be loaded with an editor, just seems kinda unnecessary now having the button there unless we're going for the retro look.

You would hope that users would read the topic before replying in which case they will already be at the bottom of the page with the reply box. 

With the help of Photoshop here with have an artists impression of how much cleaner the topic page could look.

 

Could look at the homepage as well and ask do you really need 2 options to do the same job so close together?

 

[Square Wheels]

10 minutes ago, daveoh said:

1) Start new topic - We have a create link at the top which gives you access to creating a topic quickly

2) Reply to this topic - Gone are the days where replying to a topic required a new page to be loaded with an editor, just seems kinda unnecessary now having the button there unless we're going for the retro look.

1. I really like that link in a post, it saves many clicks.
2. Agree, doesn't save any time and distracts from the page.

[TheWorldNewsMedia.org]

I will take your great idea one step further. (I agree that people don't need to be told how to reply... it is obvious.)

Do we really need such a large profile photo and box for a simply reply on a topic?  FB ditched those years ago.

I would say the public now wants "real-time" reply "chat" with threaded replies.

I know some here think that forum replies are somehow "for the ages" and should therefore be inscribed in "stone"....

I would say that comment systems on rt.com are real time and will stay for as long as those news articles are online.

 

My mantra is still "Real-Time" / "Threaded" and super fast. (And yes... they could be made SEO friendly)