I find that I can reply to a message ("original" message, if you will) without doing anything to the reply message (the "copy" of the original message, if you will).  If I then submit it, it gets saved as a new message, identical to the one I replied to.

I read through the options at the end of the docs.  I did not see anything about a way to suppress identical messages, or a way to force the user to make some kind of change to make the reply different from the original.

I'm not sure if this is what you want.

If you want to prevent "accidental" replies being identical to the original message, you can force a situation where the user will be alerted that they have to do something if they really want to make a reply. 

An example.  I have an attribute "Action".  In order to make a reply.  I have set up that I must select an Action attribute every time.  If I forget, I get an error message screen, and can click to go back to the entry and have another attempt (nothing is deleted if you have added to the reply).

In the elog.cfg file, I have the lines

Required Attributes =  Action

Preset on reply Action = 

This hopefully would remind them that they are making a reply to an entry, and either make a reply, or abort the attempt.

I was only commenting on the predicament as I have run into it also.  I have required fields, but short of some sort of "abort" control (curiously missing from the otherwise vast offerings of elog), I don't see any way to ensure that identical replies don't occur in any circumstance that may arise.

My feeling is that an additional option to elog is appropriate, one that disables -- completely -- identical replies to a message.   I am not asserting that this must be done, just that it might be the only truly efficacious way to eliminate this issue.   Again, I was only commenting on it, but I would like to see such a feature implemented in elog.  I believe it can be justified because this would seem, intutitively, to be a potential problem for almost anyone using elog. 

I hope you will receive my response here in the constructive and friendly manner it is intended.

Hi Harry,

I'm just an elog (ab)user, not one of the developers.  My original 2017 reply was to report an issue that was due to hardware, but somehow overcame a configuration flag (no multiple replies to a single entry), which might have been the same problem as the original poster, Alan Grant, was observing, where one real reply mysteriously became two identical ones.  That appears to be different to the issue you have.

There is an "Abort" button; in version 2.9.2 it is "Back" (without a warning), somewhere along the development it because "Delete" (with a warning), but that only covers circumstances where a reply is started by accident/unintentionally and then it is realised.  My previous suggestion certainly would alert the replier that they have to do something - even if only selectiing an "Action" - before the new entry would be accepted,  This suggests that you have a circumstance where the reply being a duplicate of the entry is a real issue, and that neither of the suggestions above would help.  Don't forget, some people may *want* this.

It would be for Stefan and Andreas to put this on the elog wish-list.  I am a little puzzled as to how your problem arises - lazy user? - so perhaps more comment as to how this is occurring will help Stefan and Andreas understand the why.  There is somewhere on this site a page where you can add suggestions for the wish-list, but due to security certificate issues, I can only access the Forum at present and cannot point you to it.