# Threads and forum channels

Source: https://docs.gryt.chat/docs/use/threads

Branch a conversation off a message, or run a whole channel that way

A thread is a side conversation hanging off one message. It keeps a busy answer,
or a long back-and-forth, out of the main channel while staying one click away
from it.

## Starting a thread

Hover a message in a channel and you'll find a reply-in-thread icon among the
message actions. Click it to start a thread from that message. It opens a panel
next to (or over) the channel, with the message you started from at the top.

You can't start a thread from a direct message, or from a message that's still
sending or failed to send.

## Replying

The thread panel has its own composer at the bottom, the same one the channel
uses: attachments, mentions, the emoji picker and a typing indicator all work
the same way inside a thread.

Once a message has a thread, the message itself grows a small button showing
how many replies it has. Click it to open the thread. That count is just a
size: it stays at "12 replies" whether or not you've read any of them, so it
doesn't tell you what's new.

## Unread and mentions

What's actually new shows up next to the reply count, as a badge separate from
it: how many replies you haven't read, and how many of those named you. The
same badge appears on a thread's row in a forum channel.

Being mentioned inside a thread also badges the channel it hangs off, the same
way a mention in the channel itself does — you don't have to have the thread
open to notice.

## Marking a thread solved

Whoever started the thread, and any moderator, gets a **Mark solved** button in
the panel's header. Marking it solved adds a "Solved" chip next to the reply
count and title.

The same people can **Reopen** a solved or closed thread from that button.
Everyone else can still read a solved thread and reply to it like any other;
marking it solved doesn't lock it.

## Closed threads

A closed thread has no composer. In its place, the panel just says the thread
is closed and you can't reply to it. The starter or a moderator can reopen it
from the header, same as a solved one.

## Forum channels

A forum channel replaces the usual message list with a list of topics. Each
topic is really a thread: starting one opens the same panel described above,
with the first post as the root message.

A topic row shows its title, who started it, its reply and participant counts,
when it was last active, and — where the channel has any — the tags attached to
it. Solved and closed topics carry the same chips as a thread does.

Filter the list with the buttons across the top: **All**, **Unanswered**,
**Solved**, **Closed** and **Mine**, each showing how many topics match. All
leaves closed topics out of the count and the list, which is what the
**Closed** filter is for — without it, there'd be no way back to something
that got closed.

Starting a new topic asks for a title and a first post, and lets you pick from
the channel's tags if it has any. Click a tag in the filter bar to narrow the
list down to topics carrying it.

## Where the panel sits

On a wide enough window, the thread panel sits beside the conversation as its
own column, with the channel keeping the width it's drawn at. On a narrower
window there isn't room for both, so the panel takes the whole pane instead,
with a back arrow in its header to get back to the channel.