I don't really believe that if reply counts will be shown in the UI, it will lead to any changes in behaviour... I can personally see and feel the appeal of higher follower, favourite and boost counts, but I've never once felt like I wanted to somehow inflate the number of replies to my posts...

If we want to communicate that a post has replies, but not show the number of them, it's stretching the limits of what an icon can symbolize.

Currently a single arrow just means "click reply to this post", and a double-arrow means that the post itself is a reply to another. Now you want me to make it an empty arrow if it has no replies, and filled if it does, but I think because it's a button it will make people believe replies are disabled when it's empty. Numbers seem more intuitive there.

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@Gargron idea in emoji:

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