Not sure why the system is programmed to remove quotes like this
A. It’s not the last post in the thread I was replying to.
B. Even the last post shouldn’t have quotes removed because then it isn’t immediately obvious if the reply is to the last or first post. We’ve gotten questions about this multiple times over the years and I still don’t see a good reason for it.
It seems to auto remove quotes if you quote the entire message. If you highlight a snippet of it, it’ll stay. I’ve added a random . or taken off a letter from a quote before to trick the system into seeing the quote as different and therefore leaving it before.
I do find it weird as well.
Oh, I thought I was just going crazy… Makes much more sense.
The design thinking is to reduce redundancy I believe.
I clicked “Reply” to @StingerTT 's last post here and it seems clear that I am responding to him through the icon on the upper-right hand corner? I was confused why responding to the previous post had no indication at all and it seems like Discourse designed it so intentionally to keep the interface clean. I recently have been able to turn the “reply to” the previous post indication on so it is clear to readers that I am responding to the post directly above.
To address this confusion, we recently adjusted some settings so now the “reply to” arrow shows up, even if you’re replying to the most recent post.
For readability, the system removes the quote if it’s a quote of the entire post. You can click on the “reply to” arrow instead to expand.
That’s a good improvement, I always wished it did that. It might be obvious at the time who you were replying to but once a thread develops, going back, it helps clarify who was talking to who.