Why require reply subject?

[Burpee]

I was just messing around a bit, and I started to wonder... Why do we require a subject in every reply?
I can see why you want to require a subject for a topic, but I don't see a reason why it should be required for a reply.

[Trekkie101]

Like above, dunno, but its fun.

[Owdy]

I was just messing around a bit, and I started to wonder... Why do we require a subject in every reply?
I can see why you want to require a subject for a topic, but I don't see a reason why it should be required for a reply.

Good point. Its very rarely changed.

[[Unknown]]

It's more efficient in the long run to store it with the posts, and so why not allow them to change it?  I think you're asking the wrong question.

-[Unknown]

[1MileCrash]

I was just messing around a bit, and I started to wonder... Why do we require a subject in every reply?
I can see why you want to require a subject for a topic, but I don't see a reason why it should be required for a reply.

Good point. Its very rarely changed.

not only is it very rarely changed, it is very rarely even noticed.

[codenaught]

Yeah, not very often can I see the point of changing the subject. In fact when looking at the last post thing it could confuse the member if the subject is changed. By removing the Re: the user could think it is a brand new topic.

Like I did with this reply. 

[JayBachatero]

i think some times its helpful cause after reading pages and pages u forget wt the subject is about.  cause people go off topic.  i think every reply should have it.

[Captain_Morrigan]

Can we make the subject field hidden so it doesn't show for users because I'm trying to completely change my Display.Template.php to look more like IPB's board because I like the look and feel of it.

[3guk]

Yeah I'd like to know if in the reply you can turn off subject editing, some people change it and on the main page it ends up looking like a new topic.

[Grudge]

Though there isn't an option for this you could achieve it by opening Post.template.php and finding:

Code Select Expand


// Now show the subject box for this post.
echo '
<tr>
<td align="right" style="font-weight: bold;', isset($context['post_error']['no_subject']) ? 'color: red;' : '', '" id="caption_subject">
', $txt['subject'], ':
</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="subject"', $context['subject'] == '' ? '' : ' value="' . $context['subject'] . '"', ' tabindex="', $context['tabindex']++, '" size="80" maxlength="80" />
</td>
</tr>


Change for:

Code Select Expand


// Now show the subject box for this post.
echo '
<tr>
<td align="right" style="font-weight: bold;', isset($context['post_error']['no_subject']) ? 'color: red;' : '', '" id="caption_subject">
', $txt['subject'], ':
</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="subject"', $context['subject'] == '' ? '' : ' value="' . $context['subject'] . '"', ' tabindex="', $context['tabindex']++, '" size="80" maxlength="80" />
</td>
</tr>


Code Select Expand


';
// Now show the subject box for this post.
if (empty($context['previous_posts']))
echo '
<tr>
<td align="right" style="font-weight: bold;', isset($context['post_error']['no_subject']) ? 'color: red;' : '', '" id="caption_subject">
', $txt['subject'], ':
</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="subject"', $context['subject'] == '' ? '' : ' value="' . $context['subject'] . '"', ' tabindex="', $context['tabindex']++, '" size="80" maxlength="80" />
</td>
</tr>';
else
echo '
<input type="hidden" name="subject" value="', $context['subject'], '" />';
echo '