Introducing “Reply to See” — Hide Content Until Users Reply (Flarum Extension)

xiaomeng

📦 Flarum Extension: Reply to See

A lightweight Flarum extension that allows you to hide content inside [REPLY]...[/REPLY] tags — visible only after the user replies or participates in the discussion. Perfect for boosting engagement, hiding spoilers, answers

✨ How It Works

Wrap any content you want to hide with [REPLY] and [/REPLY] tags:

The secret answer is [REPLY]Text[/REPLY].

→ Visitors will see a "Reply to unlock"/"Join the discussion to view"
→ Once they reply to the discussion (or meet admin-defined conditions), the hidden content becomes visible after a page refresh.

🖼️ Images

⚙️ Admin Panel Settings

Customize behavior to fit your community’s needs:

Participation Mode
→ Hidden content in the first post becomes visible once the user has participated anywhere in the thread (any reply).
Direct Reply Mode
→ User must reply directly to the specific post containing hidden content to reveal it.

Choose the mode that best encourages the type of interaction you want!

🖼️ Images

🚀 Why Use This?

✅ Increase user engagement and replies
✅ Hide spoilers, puzzle answers, hints, or sensitive content
✅ Simple, intuitive syntax — no complex UI needed
✅ Zero frontend bloat — optimized PHP parsing + lightweight JS toggle

🔄 How to View Hidden Content

After replying (according to your admin settings), simply refresh the page — the hidden content will automatically appear.

Perfect for educators, game masters, support forums, and communities that value meaningful interaction.

🔧 Installation:

composer require mshuo/reply-to-see
php flarum cache:clear

Github
Packagist

✅ Boost your forum’s activity — make users earn the right to see hidden content!

luceos

xiaomeng how does this compare to other reply to see extensions?

Like this one: https://flarum.org/extension/littlecxm/flarum-reply-to-see

Also, if you used (open source) code from others, make sure to mention them, to prevent any copyright conflicts.

Jake Wilson

xiaomeng if the content is hidden how exactly does one reply without being out of context

xiaomeng

Jake Wilson
Hi there! Thanks for your question.
The purpose of hiding content is to encourage meaningful interaction, but it doesn't mean users have to reply blindly. Typically, the post author will provide enough context or hints outside the hidden tags so that users know what they're responding to. For example:

Here's an exclusive bonus for our community members!  
Reply to this post to unlock the secret link to download a free eBook:  
[REPLY]Download the eBook here :http://example.com [/REPLY]

In this case, users can reply based on the puzzle itself, and once they meet the conditions (e.g., replying or participating), the hidden content becomes visible after a page refresh.

If you're using the Participation Mode, users just need to engage in the discussion anywhere in the thread. If you're using the Direct Reply Mode, they'll need to reply directly to the post with hidden content. Both modes are designed to fit different use cases and ensure engagement remains relevant.

I hope this clears things up! Let me know if you have more questions.

xiaomeng

luceos
Hi there! Let me explain how it compares to other similar extensions like littlecxm/flarum-reply-to-see.

Optimized Tag Nesting:

I have improved the handling of nested tags, ensuring that even complex cases like multiple layers of [REPLY] tags are parsed correctly. For example:

[REPLY]This is the first hidden layer: [REPLY]This is the second hidden layer.[/REPLY][/REPLY]

Many similar extensions struggle with nested tags, but my extension handles them seamlessly.

Unlike littlecxm/flarum-reply-to-see, which only works for the main post (the start post of a discussion), The extension allows you to set hidden content on specific posts. This means users can be required to reply to a specific comment or post to unlock its content, providing more flexibility for targeted interactions.

KBExit

xiaomeng In other words, its a "Spoiler" that you have to engage with.
For example:

Here is the content of the post.
[Reply to see]

Question from me.
Does this open the post if you reply to the topic in general? Or does it only work if someone replies directly to that message like I did here? If it's specific to the post, I could see this beneficial with the extension for Threads.

clarkwinkelmann

KBExit that's explained on the README and visible on the screenshot, both options are built-in.

But it seems to be a global setting, you can't use both modes of operation in different parts of the forum.

Reading the source code, the HTML tag parsing seems very complex. I was wondering why so much code is needed for nested tags, given nested tags serve no purpose (?) Is this just so you can nest mentions without having to worry about the mention containing tags? Yet at the same time, the tag won't be in the mention text anyway because you don't see it in the rendered post. I tried breaking the code but didn't find any HTML injection. However it seems like the renderer behaves a bit differently between the guest and authorized mode when it comes to missing opening or closing tags.

Another thing I noticed, if you are an admin/mod, there's no way to know if/what part of a post have been hidden by the user, unless you click edit and look for the tag. (because you always see the hidden content and there's no delimiter)