Twenty Seventeen: comments.php is all about "Replies" instead of "Comments"

[transl8or]

From themes Twenty Eleven to Twenty Sixteen, the summarizing headline over the comment area of a post was all about "thoughts".

There were the text-strings: One thought about "Hello World" or the plural form of it.

Now in Twenty Seventeen it's: One Reply to "Hello World"
see: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/comments.php#L36
and
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/comments.php#L40

Wouldn't it make sense to change this either in Twenty Seventeen to "thoughts" as well, for consistency?

---

Or even better to completely rethink the description of this headline and links from "thoughts" and "replies" to "Comments" everywhere in the comment area.

I thinks it's confusing to have a headline there that's about "thoughts" and/or "replies". It would make more sense to have it consistent described as comments, which we reply to. But these don't become Replies than after all in the comment area.

This changes might also affect some dev-Core text-strings:
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-includes/comment-template.php?marks=1596#L1596

https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-includes/comment-template.php?marks=1708#L1708

https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-includes/comment-template.php?marks=1777#L1777

https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-includes/comment-template.php?marks=1869#L1869
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-includes/comment-template.php?marks=2240#L2240

https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-includes/comment-template.php?marks=1870#L1870
https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/src/wp-includes/comment-template.php?marks=2241#L2241

[davidakennedy]

Thanks for the ticket and screenshots @transl8or! That makes things very clear, and it's helpful.

I don't think there was a strong reason to go with "Replies" over "Thoughts" other than taking inspiration from other themes.

I think it's reasonable for themes to change this type of thing, and see no reason why a default theme can't. The exception here is if the strings end up being hard to translate into other languages. Have you found that?

I believe "Comments" is already translated in core, but again, I don't think themes need to be absolutely in sync here.

[davidakennedy]

After chatting about this ticket in a recent bug scrub, I think it can be closed. It's okay for themes to use different wording.

However, if the strings end up being hard to translate into other languages, this can be reopened.