I’ve had this happen a lot but this is the first time I thought to document and post about it:
Sometimes when I click Reply in a post, it doesn’t show that my post was a reply. And sometimes it does.
In the 2020 Election thread, I clicked reply to kenobi 65’s post #6182, about the cost of a Wisconsin recount. My post #6184 does not show that it is a reply to kenobi’s post.
I then clicked reply to his post #6183, and my post #6185 does show that it is a reply to a previous post.
What’s the deal?
It’s really annoying because lots of posts that are quick replies are now without their proper context. But why does it happen?
If you try to reply to (or quote in entirety) the immediately preceding post, Discourse will undo that after you hit reply. In effect every post is assumed to be connected to the post immediately above and so labeling it a reply or allowing you to quote the whole thing is automatically disallowed.
You are far from the first SDMB person to notice this or complain about it.
The best - most reliable workaround I’ve found is to partially quote the immediately preceding post. Either that poster’s intro line or wrap-up line. That flows nicely, clearly sets the stage for whatever you’re about to say, and doesn’t take up much screen real estate.
Unrelated to the above …
I have noticed that sometimes when you reply to post A including a partial quote and also partial quote post B, the app can get confused and your post may appear as a reply to either or neither. I haven’t sussed out the pattern to that.
However, the first post was a reply to the last person to respond to the thread, while your second post was not (since you were the last poster). So it probably deletes the indicator when you reply to any of the last N posts, as long as they are by the same person.