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Andy Zhao (he/him) for The DEV Team

Posted on

New Feature: Response Templates!

I'm excited to announce a new feature we've been working on: response templates!

This feature was first requested by our community moderators. They explained that they were regularly finding themselves running into situations where they would need to reply with a similar type of comment. For instance: welcoming a new member, explaining the usage of a tag, describing how a site mechanic works, or providing any other type of similar constructive feedback. We’re even providing a special option that allows trusted moderators to reply as Sloan, our community mascot.

However, using response templates isn’t just for moderators. All community members can take advantage of the feature to help save time when posting comments. Hopefully this new functionality helps you save time if you find yourself frequently sharing similar tips, posting a list of resources, etc.

To set your response templates, you can visit your settings page.

How exactly do you use a response template? In a comment form, you'll see a new "document" button. Click that, and it will show your response templates available to use:

Once you click insert, it will paste the template into the comment form. If you have something written already, it will ask you if you want to overwrite it.

Next up, we'll be adding this feature to help support our tag moderators as they make tag adjustments.

As always, we're open to suggestions on how to make improvements here. Please feel free to open an issue if you have any comments or questions, or leave a comment on this post.

Happy coding! ❤️

Top comments (16)

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sloan profile image
Sloan the DEV Moderator

Hi there, it appears that this post contains affiliate links. We ask that posts including affiliate links also contain a clear disclaimer so that readers are aware. Here is some suggested language:

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

Lol this is me just trolling by using this feature in mod mode. Pretty cool! 😄

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

I already have a few personal response templates as stashes for DEV posts I frequently want to point folks to in terms of my advice for them early on. I've already found uses for it in the hours since this has gone live.

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aritdeveloper profile image
Arit Developer

Yeaaaahhh!!!!!

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codemouse92 profile image
Jason C. McDonald

Great to see these starting to be rolled out!

The Sloan feature is indeed good, but, I can't see the whole message before posting, and that's potentially an issue. Also, if I need to be able to adjust on a canned message slightly, without creating an altogether new template, I can't presently do that. Any way to make Post as Mod not be immediate?

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andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

can't see the whole message before posting

That's a good point, I'll add that soon!

if I need to be able to adjust on a canned message slightly, without creating an altogether new template

Hmm, not sure what you mean here. If I needed to adjust a message, I would insert it and then adjust it before submitting the comment. Do you mean adjusting a mod template?

Any way to make Post as Mod not be immediate?

Sorry, do you mind clarifying this too?

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codemouse92 profile image
Jason C. McDonald • Edited

Hmm, not sure what you mean here. If I needed to adjust a message, I would insert it and then adjust it before submitting the comment.

Yes, exactly. I need to be able to insert the message, as a mod, and adjust it before submitting. It appears I can't currently do that. It just posts it as is, right away, without a chance to adjust.

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loujaybee profile image
Lou (🚀 Open Up The Cloud ☁️)

It does appear to do this? It seems to just inject the string into the comment box? Then you can edit ad-hoc before posting?

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codemouse92 profile image
Jason C. McDonald

That's only if you want to post as yourself. Not as Sloan.

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darksmile92 profile image
Robin Kretzschmar

Awesome implementation, I've been waiting for this, bye bye notion template for common responses 👌🏽😊

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rosejcday profile image
Rose Day

Hello! Love the additional feature, looking forward to using it. 😄

Question - Is it possible to make the documentation a bit clearer up top? I found it a bit confusing to figure out what was meant by document button at first.

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andy profile image
Andy Zhao (he/him)

That's good feedback, thanks!

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cescquintero profile image
Francisco Quintero 🇨🇴 • Edited

Nice feature. Yesterday, I was updating my settings and saw this option. I tought it was really old 😅

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loujaybee profile image
Lou (🚀 Open Up The Cloud ☁️)

This is BALLIN'! Thanks Andy!

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thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt ☕

yaaay ! :D

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bhupesh profile image
Bhupesh Varshney 👾

Ahhh Yess Its here
🔥
Thanks