Hi,
In order to use the Quick Reply area, one currently has to click on a reply button to activate it. It would be great if the Quick Reply area was on by default so users could start typing their posts without the need to first click on a reply button.
If you change your display mode from linear to something else I think it works like you wan iirc. The reason it’s not like that in linear mode is you have to select which message you’re quick replying to. Anyway, that’s how I remember it. If not, lemme know. I’m off chasing other ghosts right now or I’d test it. 
Yes, I changed it to Hybrid and it works now. Would be nice if it could work in linear mode too.
oops, I meant it works in Threaded mode
Here’s the forum configuration text that goes along with that setting and explains why it’s not enabled in linear mode. The bottom line is that if you don’t require the click in linear mode, it will break threaded mode:
When Quick Reply is enabled, you may specify whether or not users must click the Quick Reply icon in order to start typing in the Quick Reply editor.
If you choose not to require a click, the system will not know to which post a user is replying, making both the threaded and hybrid display modes nonsensical.
We strongly recommend that you set the option to require a click if you use Quick Reply and have Threaded Mode available on your forums.
I’m curious whether the people using the linear mode really click on the correct posting for their answer or if they just use the reply-button which is in quick reach. In that case it will break threaded mode too.
I just click the one above which if iirc in threaded mode replies to the last post in linear.
I think it comes down to normal use if Mailing list user I suspect it is more natural to reply threaded. Where as forum users tend to reply bottom post and quote when referencing another post.
I’m sure that these aren’t always true, but the way I see it if you reply threaded it will only take a few to break threaded. In mailing lists threading makes sense, but IMO less so on web forums, where quoting can be the norm.
Clicking last button…
Rather than replying to the top post which I suspect many expect to be the default.
Agreed. I try my best to reply to the post I intend to, but sometimes it’s much faster to reply to the last post, just to get the idea down and post it, rather than searching around the post and other pages to find the post that I really wanted to reply to.
Got to say I’m used to just being able to hit quick reply and go, and would like to see it on by default too.
I click the last one and go, quick reply to me is when I want to type 2 sentences and then move onto the next post, and since we mostly keep on subject within our topics, what I post applies to everyone in the forum or to the topic in general. If I see someone who has posted good information and want to quote it or expand it then I’ll use the quote button. But quick reply works better for me.