Posting to a thread ?

[#1]

Are you able to post a general reply to a thread with out picking a particular post in that thread to "reply to"

As sometimes you may be giving a general contribution to a thread, that is not aimed at just one of the posts already there.

Kind regards

Mike

[#2]

No you can't, but it's not a problem. Despite appearances to the contrary the forum is linear so just reply to the last post.

The post you choose to reply to affects only the text that will appear if you click the Quote button when composing a reply.

[#3]

Actually there is a point in clicking the Reply button on the particular post, even when it's a more general response and a quote is not needed. Your reply may have been initiated by the content of a particular post, and you may want to follow it up without a need to quote. That poster may well have unsubscribed from the rest of the thread but may well be interested if anyone responds to that particular post and the points or information raised (so subscribed to just that). By clicking Reply to that post the poster is notified, if you click elsewhere they won't be notified. I've done that on a thread where I'm not interested in a number of other replies for various reasons, but would be to a specific post.
HTH.