This is not exactly a feature, but a user interface improvement suggestion.
It could be just me, but in most of the (smf) forums I frequent people tend to use the Quote button/link much more often than they should and often just use it instead of the Reply, often quoting the immediately previous post, though what they basically want to do is to reply. I'm not a psychologist or a behaviorist, but in short I believe there is a problem in many forums with the overuse of the Quote function instead of Reply .
Suggestion: Somehow encourage the user to use the Reply instead of the Quote.
First thing that I can think of is to make the Reply link bigger than the Quote, but I'm sure there are much better user interface designers in the smf team than me, so I leave the exact solution to them. I just want to point out the problem.
This is another example of something that should be socially controlled rather than programmatically comtolled.
In other words.... nope,
Also, anything that you think is a good way is probably not valid for anyone else
Maybe it is something Theme developers should take care of, or at least take into account, rather than the core smf team.
Quote from: Kindred on November 09, 2017, 08:10:12 PM
This is another example of something that should be socially controlled rather than programmatically controlled.
I will also say that I disagree with your contention that quote is "overused"
I don't see it as a problem in the first place
I have seen in forums (smf and others) people just quoting in whole the immediately previous post. Or quoting posts which are quoting more posts etc. It's like they think one replies with the quote button, or like the quote link is in a more prominent/convenient location than the reply link.
But I admit I haven't done any real wide-scale research on the subject and do not have other evidence than my limited experience to support my claim.
I don't see how this is a problem either. I have rarely seen this happening, personally, other than with new members accidentally quoting something that is not related to their post (who also quickly stop doing this). Users can see the result of what quoting does, and the button is very self explanatory (besides both buttons being in different places), if they still want to use it it's really up to them. Some users simply like to quote the post they are answering to.
Quote from: dekatria on November 09, 2017, 10:02:50 PM
Or quoting posts which are quoting more posts etc.
There is an admin option in post settings to 'Remove nested quotes when quoting'.